Last week Mass Effect 3 hit the scene with great sales numbers, and perfect scores from a lot of sites. However, there has been quite the backlash on what so many deemed perfect just last week. If you check out the Bioware forums you’ll notice a growing trend in the mass effect zone, a high amount of disdain to the ending of this famous trilogy. What should have been a slam dunk for Bioware now has gamers screaming at the top of their lungs, and not only with complaints and their own fanfiction ending ideas, but demands even to fix the unsatisfying series of possible endings through downloadable content. Without giving any spoilers its hard to be specific, but with over a dozen endings Bioware still managed to enrage quite a large portion of their fanbase. At the time of writing this posting, metacritic held a user score for Mass Effect 3 of 4.9 out of 10.
Bioware has dismissed these complaints as an intentional attempt to make the ending to the Mass Effect trilogy memorable, mysterious, and open to interpretation. Now, as one who has seen and experienced three of the possible eighteen endings (ignoring the female duplicate), I think I can safely say that I found them as jarring as Bioware claims to have intended. And as someone who doesn’t want to be unduly harsh on the artistic creation of others, I’ll withhold too much direct criticism of those endings and say that I see room for arguments on both sides. In defense of Bioware the endings are most definitely something memorable. Fans of the series however, have rightfully pointed out that Fable II and even three have “memorable” endings, memorably unsatisfying.
As for the future of the Mass Effect series itself, I’m certain (and so is Bioware) that even the most angry loud-mouthed nerd will still come back for more exploits of the legendary Commander Shepard, but it is curious that Bioware would so nonchalantly throw this series under the bus of fan hatred after two undeniably incredible games. This series was already memorable, with deep characters woven into a tapestry of expert interactive storytelling it hardly needed the boost of the controversial ending it now has. I loved Mass Effect, and I still do. I want more, I would’ve wanted more no matter what the ending. But now I find myself wanting more for reasons other than my love of great combat, characters, and storytelling. I want more mainly just to wash the sour taste out of my mouth, so good job Bioware. You’ve proven your capacity to get away with almost anything. Now go, take lavish and expensive vacations with your families and friends as a reward to yourselves, then get back in your cubicles and bring all of us more Mass Effect in the form of amazing (not memorable please) DLC the inevitable next entry in the franchise as fast as humanly possible.
What are your thoughts?
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