Well, as of this week, the last bit of new DLC for Mass Effect 3 is out, and I figured it's time for a look back.
It was no joke to say that Mass Effect 3 was one of the most anticipated titles in recent memory. Was there concerns? Of course there was. The bar had been set impossibly high from Mass Effect 1 and 2, the final game in a trilogy has to wrap up all those plot points that you put in from the last two games, all the people that could theoretically be killed in the previous games, how do you make them a part of the final game?
Then EA/Bioware mentioned the word "multiplayer".
And the true believers cried out in rage.
The one thing that the true believers got right in their anger about multiplayer was that it stunk that you had to grind multiplayer to get the best single player ending. It locked out a good bunch of people who may not want to deal with Xbox Live and some of it's more.. affected users, let's say..; not to mention those who still don't have a reliable internet connection in this day and age.
But the multiplayer probably was one of the biggest moneymakers and time sinks Bioware had with this game. You could buy the good stuff with credits earned by grinding multiplayer missions, or earn them by performing tasks on special weekends (one of the ways that EA/Bioware kept their fans coming back later on in the life cycle). Or you could just pay to buy packs, ala Magic The Gathering. How much did I spend on packs to play MP with my friends? Let's just say that I don't want to go back and find out if I spent more on the packs then I did for the game itself.
So, the game comes out, and the fans love it. It's 30+ hours of one of the toughest, best games. The throwbacks to past games flew fast and furious. You got a feeling of your choices from past games made a difference. You saw the passing of beloved friends, (including the heroic sacrifice of a certain Gilbert & Sullivan scientist Salarian).. to give you the chance to forge the army needed to defeat the Reapers once and for all. You defeated the odds, time and time again, until finally...
(insert record scratch sound here)
It all came to a screeching halt with the ending 30 minutes.
The MacGuffin you had been chasing the whole game turned out to be an uber space AI who gave you the choice of three unsatisfying endings. Endings which didn't change much between them. All your choices, all your struggles, came down to picking a color.
It stunk.
And the true believers cried out in rage again.
And they had a damn good point.
Bioware fought a losing battle from the start, trying to insist that it was a worthy ending to the trilogy. They relented to a point, releasing an extended cut of the ending to go into more details, and adding a fourth option (refusing the other three) that basically had Shepard doom the human race by refusing to change the universe.
To be honest, the ending, even a year after Mass Effect 3's release.. taints the trilogy to a point.
But there was so much good here, through the games, and the various folks I played with (both friends and random strangers over Xbox Live), that I find myself trying very hard to remember the high points, and not let the low points break me down.
So to Bioware, thank you for a mostly great trilogy of games. To my friends on Team Leeeroy, let's find another game to do that kinda stuff in.). And here's to the Shepard's.. one and all. Let's hope they found a real ending with the romantic character of their choice, and lived to a ripe old age.
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