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[monkspider]

There is a theory going around that the entire ending after Shepard was blasted by Sovereign was a hallucination, either from a dying Shepard or from Harbinger indoctrination. The key evidence is as follows:

-When you are running to the beam of light, the voice on the radio says that everyone was wiped out. You would think they would have noticed Anderson and Shepard were still going. It is also odd that Anderson somehow makes it there before you even though you never see him.

-You are wearing different clothes and have a different gun that now has infinite ammo.

-The entire Citadel sequence is ethereal and dreamlike, with the talk about the Citadal changing shape and emerging through a dark tunnel. TIM and Anderson may represent different parts of Shepard's conscious.

-It would be impossible for Shepard to have a conversation with the Starchild and survive in the vacuum of space without a helmet.

-The Starchild is either a hallucination or Harbinger attempting to indoctrinate you. Note that the choice he leads you to believe is the worst is the one that you had always set out to do and throughout the game considered to be the only realistic option, destroying the Reapers. The other two represent the choices of either Saren (synthesis) or TIM (control). If you choose either of these two your Shepard appears to be briefly huskified, but this doesn't happen with Destroy. Destroy is also the only way to unlock the secret ending that shows Shepard alive (provided you have a high enough military strength).

-Oh, and about that secret ending, Shepard wakes up not in what appears to be the ruins of the Citadel, but in a pile of concrete and rebar. In other words, Shepard wakes up back in London where he was after the Harbinger blast.

 

[linzin]

Okay, I ain't reading shit in here because I haven't played the game yet, but I am willing to be sorta spoiled a bit by asking this question: Is it true that your decisions from the first two games don't carry much weight in this game?

I don't need any evidence, just a simple yes or not, or sort of will do. Thanks.

In the grand scheme of things - as in the actual ending where galactic civilization as we know it is destroyed - no. But I hesitate to say that they don't carry much weight in this game. For me, the whole reason ME3 was amazing was that the seemingly minor choices I had made in ME1 and ME2 did matter - in seemingly minor ways like having Conrad Verner show up and apologize for accusing me of waving a gun in his face. The character journeys we got for ME1 squadmates, things like whether or not you can achieve peace between the geth and the quarians, etc.

The last five minutes of this game were nonsense and crazy space magic bullshit, but the 30 hours before that were still great.

 

[FHIZ]

I've got to say, I really enjoyed the bro out scene between Shepard and Garrus when they go to some random point on the citadel and shoot the shit.

Also, I'm bummed I couldn't get a truce between the Quarians and the Geth, I think the only thing that prevented me from doing so was whatever the outcome I had for Legion's loyalty mission in 2... too bad I forgot what that was.

 

[Schweinehund]

The most disappointing thing for me was the party members.

Never liked ash/kaiden, vega is just the stereotypical macho mexicano soldier, and EDI just feels wierd and out of place.

Javik is cool.

The returning characters are great. Loved Garrus/Tali/Liara. Nobody returned from 2, super disappointing considering I thought the party members were more intriguing. Legion and Mordin (still can't accept that he died ) should have been in the party.

Also the order in which you acquire party members is way too linear. You don't even get tali until you're near done with the game.

I liked the arcs, specifically the quarian/geth conflict and resolution. I felt so bad for the geth after going through their consensus.

The endings were another disappointment. I would have liked the destroy reaper option if it didn't include the destroy geth part.

 

[dimb]

Was the Best Gamers review posted in here yet?

 

[therealminime]

I just realised why the ending bummed me out so much, I don't ever get to have my second bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy with Dr. Chakwas.

 

[Dysun]

I had over 6800 military strength (did every side quest) and didn't see Shepard live in any of the 3 endings. Is multiplayer/galactic readiness a requirement for that one cutscene where he lives if you destroy the reapers?

 

[WiiredShawn]

There is a theory going around that the entire ending after Shepard was blasted by Sovereign was a hallucination, either from a dying Shepard or from Harbinger indoctrination. The key evidence is as follows:

-When you are running to the beam of light, the voice on the radio says that everyone was wiped out. You would think they would have noticed Anderson and Shepard were still going. It is also odd that Anderson somehow makes it there before you even though you never see him.

-You are wearing different clothes and have a different gun that now has infinite ammo.

-The entire Citadel sequence is ethereal and dreamlike, with the talk about the Citadal changing shape and emerging through a dark tunnel. TIM and Anderson may represent different parts of Shepard's conscious.

-It would be impossible for Shepard to have a conversation with the Starchild and survive in the vacuum of space without a helmet.

-The Starchild is either a hallucination or Harbinger attempting to indoctrinate you. Note that the choice he leads you to believe is the worst is the one that you had always set out to do and throughout the game considered to be the only realistic option, destroying the Reapers. The other two represent the choices of either Saren (synthesis) or TIM (control). If you choose either of these two your Shepard appears to be briefly huskified, but this doesn't happen with Destroy. Destroy is also the only way to unlock the secret ending that shows Shepard alive (provided you have a high enough military strength).

-Oh, and about that secret ending, Shepard wakes up not in what appears to be the ruins of the Citadel, but in a pile of concrete and rebar. In other words, Shepard wakes up back in London where he was after the Harbinger blast.

While I like this idea, it's still problematic. If Shephard is hallucinating, then it doesn't answer how s/he "stopped the Reaper threat" like the final message claims. In actuality, the fleets would have had to win against the Reapers (meaning the message lied to us, but I guess that's better than the other reality). It would also mean that the ending video of Joker flying away was a deliberate red herring (representative of Shepard's fear of abandonment?), which is kind of a dick move without any proper explanation.

I could buy the indoctrination idea, but only if the process starts to happen after the elevator ride. Presumably, if Harbinger wants to lead Shepard away from "Destroy," then s/he would have to be physically positioned to use the Crucible against the Reapers. Also, we know that the Illusive Man was actually on the Citadel, thus rendering his presence quite literal rather than figurative. Additionally, does the scene after each choice represent reality or just Harbinger trying to "show" Shepard the result of his/her decision? That's not clearly elucidated in the end.

All in all, though, the writers nulled the value of any discussion with that cheap final scene of the man telling the story - it doesn't matter if there are inconsistencies because it's just an old story, and even the man admits that some details have been lost to time. It's the writers easy-out from needing to explain anything. "It was all just a tall tale, who knows if it's true!"

How lazy? So lazy.

I had over 6800 military strength (did every side quest) and didn't see Shepard live in any of the 3 endings. Is multiplayer/galactic readiness a requirement for that one cutscene where he lives if you destroy the reapers?

I could be mistaken, but I believe you need to also convince the Illusive Man to kill himself, in addition to having over 5000 EMS.

 

[squidyj]

Yes you can change your class from me1 to me2 when importing. You can also change it again if you want in me3.

What I didn't realize was that if you keep your class you keep your ability selections. WHich was weird since I downloaded a save file from teh interwebs who had taken some really weird choices.

 

[Inferno313]

There is a theory going around that the entire ending after Shepard was blasted by Sovereign was a hallucination, either from a dying Shepard or from Harbinger indoctrination. The key evidence is as follows:

-When you are running to the beam of light, the voice on the radio says that everyone was wiped out. You would think they would have noticed Anderson and Shepard were still going. It is also odd that Anderson somehow makes it there before you even though you never see him.

-You are wearing different clothes and have a different gun that now has infinite ammo.

-The entire Citadel sequence is ethereal and dreamlike, with the talk about the Citadal changing shape and emerging through a dark tunnel. TIM and Anderson may represent different parts of Shepard's conscious.

-It would be impossible for Shepard to have a conversation with the Starchild and survive in the vacuum of space without a helmet.

-The Starchild is either a hallucination or Harbinger attempting to indoctrinate you. Note that the choice he leads you to believe is the worst is the one that you had always set out to do and throughout the game considered to be the only realistic option, destroying the Reapers. The other two represent the choices of either Saren (synthesis) or TIM (control). If you choose either of these two your Shepard appears to be briefly huskified, but this doesn't happen with Destroy. Destroy is also the only way to unlock the secret ending that shows Shepard alive (provided you have a high enough military strength).

-Oh, and about that secret ending, Shepard wakes up not in what appears to be the ruins of the Citadel, but in a pile of concrete and rebar. In other words, Shepard wakes up back in London where he was after the Harbinger blast.

I like this, but I'd be way more willing to buy into if Bioware had established at least once prior that becoming indoctrinated feels like this. Also, how would the post-credit sequence fit into this?

 

[Digoman]

I had over 6800 military strength (did every side quest) and didn't see Shepard live in any of the 3 endings. Is multiplayer/galactic readiness a requirement for that one cutscene where he lives if you destroy the reapers?

Yes. You have to multiply your Military Strength with the galatic readniess, and that gives you your effective military strength. The default readiness if you don't touch multiplayer is 50%, so you cut that 6800 in half to 3400. You need 4000 or 5000 to see the "shepard lives" end, depending on a choice at the end. But believe me, you're not missing much. Just a few seconds of the chestplate moving indicating that he is alive.

EDIT: Beaten. BTW, if you do go to multiplayer, don't forget that the multiplier goes down with time, so if you play now to get like... 60-70% (easy to do) to get the 4000-5000 points, in one month it will be back to 50%, I think.

 

[FHIZ]

I had over 6800 military strength (did every side quest) and didn't see Shepard live in any of the 3 endings. Is multiplayer/galactic readiness a requirement for that one cutscene where he lives if you destroy the reapers?

I think this is how it goes,

You're ending is determined by a few things, like if you imported a save and whether or not you destroyed the collector's base. Shepard can survive in both variants, which is a result of your Effective Military Strength, which = Galactic Readiness x Your Military Strength.

So if you played ZERO multiplayer and your GR is at 50%, your EMS is at 3400, which is below the threshold where Shepard lives (I believe it's 4000)

 

[BuckRobotron]

Also the order in which you acquire party members is way too linear. You don't even get tali until you're near done with the game.

This definitely bugged me as for my primary Shep he is always accompanied by Tali when possible. On ME1/ME2 replays I'd prioritize picking her up to see her comments/interactions with the team as many scenarios as possible. And despite knowing (generally) about the ME3 endings I kept myself unspoiled on the main game and was wondering when the hell I would get Tali.

But no, won't ever be able to bring her along to things like the Tuchanka priority mission. Bah.

OTOH, I did like how well important but non-squad ME2 returning characters ended up. My primary Shep came from an all-DLC done and all members saved ME2 file, so there were a lot of nice moments. Such as was always liking Jack and her big brown doe eyes but she was in all ways quite appealing in her return in ME3.

 

[Dysun]

Thanks for clarifying, but I find that forced multiplayer to get the best ending pretty lame

 

[Apophenia Overload]

Well yeah that's the point. They come to wipe out organic races capable of creating synthetics that will lead to the extermination of all life, it would make sense they'd kill the synthetics that are around as well.

It's a Lovecraftian thing! You use the cult that some of the worms set up as your little helper, eating them at the end as a final betrayal.

 

[Pollux]

There is a theory going around that the entire ending after Shepard was blasted by Sovereign was a hallucination, either from a dying Shepard or from Harbinger indoctrination. The key evidence is as follows:

-When you are running to the beam of light, the voice on the radio says that everyone was wiped out. You would think they would have noticed Anderson and Shepard were still going. It is also odd that Anderson somehow makes it there before you even though you never see him.

-You are wearing different clothes and have a different gun that now has infinite ammo.

-The entire Citadel sequence is ethereal and dreamlike, with the talk about the Citadal changing shape and emerging through a dark tunnel. TIM and Anderson may represent different parts of Shepard's conscious.

-It would be impossible for Shepard to have a conversation with the Starchild and survive in the vacuum of space without a helmet.

-The Starchild is either a hallucination or Harbinger attempting to indoctrinate you. Note that the choice he leads you to believe is the worst is the one that you had always set out to do and throughout the game considered to be the only realistic option, destroying the Reapers. The other two represent the choices of either Saren (synthesis) or TIM (control). If you choose either of these two your Shepard appears to be briefly huskified, but this doesn't happen with Destroy. Destroy is also the only way to unlock the secret ending that shows Shepard alive (provided you have a high enough military strength).

-Oh, and about that secret ending, Shepard wakes up not in what appears to be the ruins of the Citadel, but in a pile of concrete and rebar. In other words, Shepard wakes up back in London where he was after the Harbinger blast.

If this whole dream thing is true then I just got a whole new positive perspective on the ending.

 

[The Xtortionist]

Yeah this shit blows. The regular ending choices should only be a fallback if your EMS rating isn't high enough to take out the Reapers alone.

Maybe break it down like this

EMS<2000 - Shepard must make one of the regular choices and dies.
EMS<3000 - Shepard must make one of the choices, but lives.
EMS<4000 - Shepard sacrifices himself to fire the Crucible, which destroys the Reapers along with the Citadel and everyone on it.
EMS<5000 - Shepard can choose to either sacrifice himself to fire the Crucible for the above effect, or fight the Reapers head on. In the case of the latter, allied forces are victorious despite numerous casualties, including Shepard and Earth.
EMS<6000 - Shepard can fire the Crucible for already stated effects, or fight the Reapers head on. In the case of the latter, Allied forces are victorious with minimal casualties. Shepard dies.
EMS<7000(basically do 95% of everything in the game and get 100% readiness) - Shepard chooses to fight the Reapers head-on, with minimal casualties and survives.

Or, just make it so with a very high EMS, Shepard can either sacrifice himself to fire the Crucible and killing all reapers (paragon) or fight the Reapers head-on, ensuring his own survival at the cost of numerous casualties (Renegade).

 

[Digoman]

Thanks for clarifying, but I find that forced multiplayer to get the best ending pretty lame

I agree. If the focus of the discussion now wasn't about the endings themselves, it would probably be on my list of complaints. But since the difference is minimal on a disappointing ending (for me at least), it isn't high on the list of things to nag about now. People on PC can also use a savegame editor to bypass this.

About the "dream" ending... I don't know... at this point I don't give Bioware storytelling abilities credit to come up with something like that, but at least people are giving them a way out, hehehe.

 

[BuckRobotron]

Also, there is no excuse for not giving us a krogan squadmate in this game. Wrex was awesome, Grunt was okay, but then to not give us any krogan? Inexcusable.

Vega seems to fill the Krogan(-wannabe) spot. Meh.

 

[Vamphuntr]

I did the ending again with 7000 EMS and 100% galaxy crappiness and it's the same dumb thing :/ There isn't any hidden ending except the cutscene showing Shepard's corpse moving in the rubbles

 

[Tookay]

There is a theory going around that the entire ending after Shepard was blasted by Sovereign was a hallucination, either from a dying Shepard or from Harbinger indoctrination. The key evidence is as follows:

Denial -> Anger -> Bargaining -> Depression -> Acceptance

 

[monkspider]

I am not exactly sure what the significance of the grandpa storyteller scene would be. I assume it has some significance since it is one of the more difficult sequences to unlock from what I understand, second only to the Shepard alive scene. But even this scene has a very dream-like quality to it. A still, snowy night listening to two unseen speakers. I am not sure what it is all about, if I had to guess, maybe some kind of self-validation fantasy of Shepard? It is so out of left field and such a contrast to the tone of the game's universe that it seems just as dreamlike and unreal as the rest of the post-Harbinger sequence.

I didn't bring up the Normandy scene but it also has a surreal quality to it. Why are the squadmates who were just shot by Harbinger's laser and were either dead or at least severely wounded somehow back on the Normandy apparently no worse for wear? And why would all of them abandon Shepard right when you were on the cusp of victory and run away? And why were they within range of a Mass Relay? The nearest one in the Sol System was at Pluto.

Oh, and one last one, and one that is the most obvious. Why does the Starchild look like the kid that Shepard has been seeing in his dreams throughout the whole game if it is not a dream?

Denial -> Anger -> Bargaining -> Depression -> Acceptance

LOL, there is likely some truth to that but I do find there is enough evidence for the hallucination theory for it to be genuinely compelling.

 

[Apophenia Overload]

Jennifer "Hooper" has to be the least derogatory nickname for Hepler I've ever seen. Sadly.

 

[Banana Kid]

Denial -> Anger -> Bargaining -> Depression -> Acceptance

Considering that people are currently campaigning for Bioware to patch in a new ending, I'd say we're in Bargaining right now.

 

[Vamphuntr]

Yeah it's not a dream sequence guys. Why would they do such a thing for the ending of a trilogy?

The reason your armor is changed to all the same default burned one is because they are lazy and didn't do a destroyed/melted version for every armor in the game.

The reason Shepard's corpse in the secret ending is in buried in concrete is probably because they didn't think about it and the team that did the movie had no idea how the magic crucible/citadel hybrid looked like.

Your gun fires an infinite number of bullets simply to balance the game because the aiming is poor in this part because Shepard is trembling. Moreover, you need to fire at the power tube to get the Destruction ending so they had to make sure you had bullets for that.

The squadmates being teleported to the Normandy after the beam fires is simply a plot hole. It's not like there wasn't any plot holes in the game.

If it was a dream they wouldn't have a put the movie with the kid and the old guy at the end talking about THE Shepard and they would have showed clearly it was a dream. Otherwise the ending is even less complete.

 

[Lingitiz]

Was anyone else mad that Hackett got to make the final speech to the fleets before the attack? I know Lance Henriksen is a total badass, but it seems like a missed opportunity seeing that Shepard was the one who gathered everyone.

 

[neojubei]

Was anyone else mad that Hackett got to make the final speech to the fleets before the attack? I know Lance Henriksen is a total badass, but it seems like a missed opportunity seeing that Shepard was the one who gathered everyone.

Shepard did all the hard work and Hackett takes the credit.

 

[LordCanti]

I was in for the ending...until I saw my reaper-charred waifu Liara disembarking from the Normandy somehow. I'm just going to assume that magic saved her.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

Just finished it. Good game, but the ending I got was some dumb fucking shit.

 

[Rokam]

I do like how Bioware basically tells you that Shepard is not making it through this alive. I had a glimmer of hope, then I got to the part where I could contact all my past squadmates, my reaction was "Well fuck..."

 

[monkspider]

Wow, this just in, the Bioware Community manager says she interpreted the ending as a "dying hallucination" on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/#!/JessicaMerizan

Apparently one of the other Devs said something like "fans may have reacted without all of the facts being in". Maybe this was planned as a prelude to a Broken Steel-style DLC from the beginning?

 

[Sentenza]

Wow, this just in, the Bioware Community manager says she interpreted the ending as a "dying hallucination" on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/#!/JessicaMerizan

Apparently one of the other Devs said something like "fans may have acted without all of the facts being in". Maybe this was planned as a prelude to a Broken Steel-style DLC from the beginning?

OR maaaaaybe it's some rushed damage control.

 

[Rokam]

Wow, this just in, the Bioware Community manager says she interpreted the ending as a "dying hallucination" on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/#!/JessicaMerizan

Apparently one of the other Devs said something like "fans may have acted without all of the facts being in". Maybe this was planned as a prelude to a Broken Steel-style DLC from the beginning?

All the facts are in though, unless they want to admit we have to pay extra for an ending lol.

 

[monkspider]

OR maaaaaybe it's some rushed damage control.

That is certainly not unthinkable either.

 

[NBtoaster]

Wow, this just in, the Bioware Community manager says she interpreted the ending as a "dying hallucination" on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/#!/JessicaMerizan

Apparently one of the other Devs said something like "fans may have reacted without all of the facts being in". Maybe this was planned as a prelude to a Broken Steel-style DLC from the beginning?

She also says "I'm not a dev so I don't know what was intended".

Don't take anything form that except her opinion.

 

[Rokam]

So what happens if Legion is dead and you destroyed the heretics?

 

[Vamphuntr]

She also says "I'm not a dev so I don't know what was intended".

Don't take anything form that except her opinion.

Trying hard to damage control the thing. Just like they did before.

 

[LordCanti]

I like to think that Shepard floated back to the ground unharmed due to fancy new re-entry and parachute equipment built into every standard issue Alliance Armor.

 

[Last Hearth]

Shepard never made it to the Citadel, everything after he get up from the blast was a dream.

 

[gillty]

Edited my Galactic Readiness with the Gibbed Editor to 15000 (LOL), and redid the last 3 hours, gotta say the Synthesis ending is bad ass.

 

[NBtoaster]

-100% respect to Bioware if they change (or add) any endings. They should live with it.

Don't like the idea of hallucinations either.

 

[Vamphuntr]

Shepard never made it to the Citadel, everything after he get up from the blast was a dream.

STEP 1 DENIAL

I doubt even Bioware would do that. It's an even worse ending to the trilogy. There's basically no ending then and the plot with the Illusive Man is never resolved.

If they wanted to make a dream sequence they would have showed the earth getting toasted as you failed in the end and would have clearly explained so. Come on. Your war assets actually change the fate of the earth in the ending so no it's not a dream. The stargazers thing at the end make it fairly obivous too.

They basically made a reset button ending letting them start fresh for the next title in the series. They already said there would be more ME games but that Shepard's story ended. I doubt that an ending where you die in a pile of rubble and the galaxy is doomed let them to that.

 

[BeesEight]

Wow, this just in, the Bioware Community manager says she interpreted the ending as a "dying hallucination" on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/#!/JessicaMerizan

Apparently one of the other Devs said something like "fans may have reacted without all of the facts being in". Maybe this was planned as a prelude to a Broken Steel-style DLC from the beginning?

Dat cognitive dissonance.

 

[Banana Kid]

Here's what really bothers me about the ending.

The revelation that the basis of this entire universe's history has been synthetics vs. organics, even before the Reapers. There's been no indication that synthetics rising up and destroying all organics would ever be an actual problem. They don't establish it as a threat until the last ten minutes of the trilogy, when Ghost Kid tells you "Hey, by the way, THIS is what everything has been about this whole time."

If the Geth hadn't been revealed to be totally peaceful when free of Reaper manipulation, then it would have made sense. There would be a precedent. But as it is, we're being told the Reapers are an answer to a problem we never knew existed.

The core conflict of the Mass Effect universe is something we weren't let in on until the very end.

 

[exYle]

Dat cognitive dissonance.

This should be directed towards the entire thread, not that one post

 

[Apophenia Overload]

All of ME 2 and 3 were a dream as Shepard dies falling into that planet's atmosphere.

 

[LumpOfCole]

It is kind of hard to explain why Shepard is breathing in goddamn space

 

[Tookay]

^ Space MAGIC.

All of ME 2 and 3 were a dream as Shepard dies falling into that planet's atmosphere.

Nah, ME1, 2, and 3 were all dreams; the moment Shepard touched the Prothean beacon, he was hallucinating.

 

[Vamphuntr]

All of ME 2 and 3 were a dream as Shepard dies falling into that planet's atmosphere.

Miranda's ass was SO real.

 

[LumpOfCole]

Did anyone notice how there are very tongue-in-cheek shots of Miranda's ass in this game? Like even swooping camera shots that focus directly on the ass - it has to be a cameraman's wink to the player.