Board 8 > Mass Effect 3- How satisfied were you with how it ended the ME Trilogy? [BEE W6]

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FAIR WARNING - I promise there will be zero spoilers in the opening posts of this topic series, however everything after that could be Spoiler City. After all, we're exclusively discussing the final moments of some of the most beloved and long running series in the history of popular media... so proceed with caution!

Welcome to Best Ending Ever, the topic series where Board 8 will decide the best (and worst) endings in the history of film, television, literature, and video games. Each week we'll cover a well-regarded or controversial new entry.

For this 6th week we're staying with the world of video games! Our question is How satisfied were you with the way Mass Effect 3 ended the Mass Effect trilogy? Please vote based on the original on-disc ending, not the free Updated Ending DLC that was added later or any of the aftermath paid DLCs.
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Last Week's Result
* Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations earned an average of 3.77
In a performance that will surely never be matched, over 80% of the board graded T&T the full 4 points, smashing the old record for Best Ending Ever! The topic didn't receive quite as many votes as previous weeks (even here at Phoenix Wright's home on the web it isn't quite as popular as Star Wars), but T&T was so far ahead of Breaking Bad and Avengers that no extra votes were going to keep it from #1. As for discussion, there wasn't too much to be had last week... only because every poster agreed the ending was "pretty much perfect."

BEE All Time Rankings
* 3.77 w/ 92 votes - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations
* 3.32 w/ 117 votes - Breaking Bad
* 3.31 w/ 102 votes - Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame
* 1.71 w/ 111 votes - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
* 1.65 w/ 121 votes - Game of Thrones


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I only just played through mass effect 3 for the 1st time earlier this year

I enjoyed it

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Please vote based on the original on-disc ending, not the free Updated Ending DLC that was added later or any of the aftermath paid DLCs.

Is there any particular reason for this?

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oops didn't read the disclaimer about original ending before I voted

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(but also Citadel DLC is the best DLC ever made)

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Please vote based on the original on-disc ending, not the free Updated Ending DLC that was added later or any of the aftermath paid DLCs.

Oh baby. They quietly patched so much into the game that helped the ending. IIRC they added lengthy sidequests with interesting lore events just to give the ending more context. pretty sure a chill reaper shows up to talk

The buildup and last hour of ME3 was absolutely amazing, excluding the final 5 minutes.

This made the ending feel even worse than it already was, similar to how you can see a dark circle in a white wall after looking away from a bright light source

So I have to give it a 2. I'm sure if I had waited 6 months for the patches to come out it would have been a 3 or 4

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Because I just played it this year I have no idea what the original ending even was nor do I really care

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redrocket posted...

Is there any particular reason for this?

Ideally I'd like if we were all voting on the same thing, not some going off the original ending, some the Citadel DLC that's constantly hyped on this board, some off the updated ending. But I understand that last part is going to be impossible for people who didn't finish in 2012, so it's okay.


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Voted before I saw the disclaimer. I think with the EC it's a satisfying enough ending and Citadel certainly helps with that too

Can't judge it without the EC

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I beat the trilogy a couple of months ago, and I was pretty indifferent to the ending.

There are some stories that live and die by their ending, where it REALLY matters as a thematic or character-driven conclusion. Mass Effect wasn't really that for me.

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It's a bit over-hated, but it wasn't good
Went with 2

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I have a fairly positive opinion of the game overall but the ending specifically sucks, and it's not something that changes with the extended cut. The series was already locked into an unsatisfying ending from at least as far back as the first half of ME3, possibly even into the latter half of ME2. And in addition to the ending specifically being terrible, the build up to it is also bad as the whole Earth sequence is the worst part of the game.

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The original one-disc ending gets a 2. The concept was fine, what was there was fine, but it was like a 5 minute scene to sum up an entire trilogy. Not nearly enough.

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I think it's not great even with the extended ending. It was extremely uncompelling to me with none of the squadmates you grew to love by your side or even a natural progression or properly done build-up to meeting the Catalyst in my opinion. Just all-together lame, but I don't think it hurts the whole experience of the trilogy that much despite it.

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Honestly I don't really remember what happened. I don't remember feeling strongly one way or the other. So I guess it gets a 2.

Oops also didnt read the disclaimer and gave it a 2. The on-disc version is a 1 easily.

Its a mess, even disregarding the EC they clearly held stuff back to sell it to you. From Ashes and Leviathan are essential to the story yet were paid DLC. And the pre-EC ending is just bad. Not to mention the fact that at launch they locked endings behind the multiplayer which IIRC was behind an online pass. Classic example of EA getting their grubby mitts all over something.

When you have all the DLC though, its a lot better. Not satisfying, but passable. The last few hours are still bad though, because the problems with the ending of that game were never confined to just the last cutscene. Its not great, but there are much worse endings out there.

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The Extended Cut was free though

Oh wait I misread what you said there

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Leonhart4 posted...

The Extended Cut was free though

Which is why I said disregarding it! Talking about From Ashes (which I believe was on-disc), Leviathan, and the multiplayer (which required an online pass IIRC) being necessary for all endings at launch.

Just a really bad example of malicious business practices affecting a game.

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Mass Effect 3 is my 4th favorite game of all time. I loved it to death and thought it was the perfect end to a fantastic series.*

*I say this having played it many years after it came out with no knowledge of the backlash/original ending, and with full DLC installed.

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Anyway, my biggest problem with ME3's ending is not the usual complaint. I think I've only seen like one other person on B8 share this gripe with it.

I wanted an unequivocally happy ending for Shepard, not just some 1 second cut that maybe they survived if you picked Destroy and had enough points.

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FFDragon posted...

oops didn't read the disclaimer about original ending before I voted

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And yeah, I'm not voting based on the original ending. I barely remember what they changed at this point, other than not making it look like the relays were all destroyed and the Normandy survivors were just stranded on a random planet forever.

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1; it killed my soul. and my joy turned to ashes.

Leonhart4 posted...

And yeah, I'm not voting based on the original ending. I barely remember what they changed at this point, other than not making it look like the relays were all destroyed and the Normandy survivors were just stranded on a random planet forever.

Quite a bit.

There was: Ambiguity over what happened to the squadmates you brought with Shepard. They just disappeared after Harbinger's laser run and were never mentioned again. A few things were added in to tether it more to reality and knock down Contamination Theory, including Hackett mentioning someone made it to the beam. Shepard's flashback was changed from Joker -> Dead character, and the last flashback was originally locked to Liara/Ashley/Kaidan but was changed to Shepard's LI. The bit about the Normandy and the fleet being ordered to evacuate was added, previously the ending just cut to the Normandy getting caught in the blast inexplicably. The relays not exploding like you note. The character narration during the ending is new as are the slide cards showing what happened around the galaxy/to various groups/teammates as well as Shepard's memorial scene. The Normandy is shown being repaired/flying off at the end was new. Catalyst had its dialogue expanded to explain the origin of the Reapers and more details on what the Crucible can do.

And after the credits roll the congrats screen basically shilled for DLC originally and was changed to... not do that.

Also the required EMS for some of the high-tier endings was literally impossible to achieve without multiplayer and/or DLC before Extended Cut. The requirements were lowered so that wasn't a thing anymore.

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Man, I think I completely blocked the Contamimation Theory from my brain. I had totally forgotten about that.

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Leonhart4 posted...

Anyway, my biggest problem with ME3's ending is not the usual complaint. I think I've only seen like one other person on B8 share this gripe with it.

I wanted an unequivocally happy ending for Shepard, not just some 1 second cut that maybe they survived if you picked Destroy and had enough points.

Strong disagree. The overwhelming message throughout the series is about the high cost of war. Shep getting a happy ending is absolutely off the table.

I voted 3 because it's not flawless, but I'm close to 4 because I do think it's about as good as they could possibly do, given the constraint of having to make it appear like you're giving the players a choice. Their only other option was to go full Last of Us and just force the player into making whatever decision they thought was best, which wouldn't work in a series that was all about moral choices and would have been shit all over even more than this was...

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Oh, I get why they did it. I just would've preferred another option.

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The ME3 ending was destined to be hated after they went on and on about how important your choices were leading up to the game's release. Personally the worst part of it is how inconsequential your squad feels at the end and how you have to do the last bit solo, the last 10 minutes really didn't feel very 'Mass Effect' to me. Between that, Illusive Man's ending just being identical to Saren's, the lack of any Harbinger dialogue and the colour coded relays it's a very weak conclusion to three games worth of story imo.

Talking about the game as a whole, there were a few clumsy ways to shut off questlines that didn't seem to make sense to me (the Quarian/Geth conflict seemed really forced, why would it come to a head at that particular moment in time), and I hated how underused the ME2 cast were for the most part. Still a good game but the rushed development time and impossible-to-reach expectations doomed it in regards to being a satisfying ending.

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andylt posted...

Still a good game but the rushed development time and impossible-to-reach expectations doomed it in regards to being a satisfying ending.

I think that's fair, overall. Will have more to say in my Hot Take tomorrow!


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WHOOPS, I meant tonight!


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Original ME3 ending is horrible.

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Hey what happened to this promised Hot Take @NGamer64?

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By promising a long, epic, and satisfying hot take to conclude his topic, and then failing to deliver much of anything at all, his point about the ME3 ending was fully made...

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FFDragon posted...

oops didn't read the disclaimer about original ending before I voted

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