Quote:
Originally Posted by Tchocky
Finished my Mass Effect trilogy playthrough. (spoilers forthcoming)
ME1 was, as I've stated before, better than the sum of its parts. It had the overall best plotline of the series and a sense of wonder that the other two games lacked as the series became progressively more streamlined and linear.
|
Definitely in agreement here. Not sure why we can't have streamlined gameplay and exploration
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tchocky
As for the "ending": I downloaded the Extended Cut before I played the game, so in fairness I never saw the original ending that everyone felt the need to bitch about. That said, the ending was just fine. Would I have liked to see my Shepard walk into the sunset with Liara and have a bunch of blue tentacle-haired children? Sure. And if you choose the Destroy ending (the only one where Shepard apparently lives), who's to say you can't head-canon that shit? (The idea of sacrificing EDI and the geth kinda sucks, but I like the Destroy ending the best because I like the idea of the galaxy finally being free of any Reaper influence, which the other endings deny you. That and the Synthesis ending to me seems like horseshit; Reaper code + sentient organic life = HUSKS, not space magic).
But the ending worked. It wrapped things up fairly well (I can live with the plot holes and space magic) while being just ambiguous enough for me to wonder, what direction will the ME universe take next? I'm hoping for a true sequel, set centuries or even millennia after the game (if they go prequel for the next game I'm going to be disappointed because that would be very lazy and unambitious of BioWare, but it'd be a guaranteed moneymaker, so who knows?).
|
I'm done talking about the storyline for ME3, but suffice to say I had no motivation to play any DLC or extended cut after finishing the game the first time, in stark contrast to ME1 and 2. I didn't even hate the ending like many folks, but there was zero payoff. The gameplay is fluid and streamlined, but there are plenty of fine-tuned shooters out there, and 20-40 hours is a lot of time to devote to something.
On the subject of writing endings, Vince of Breaking Bad:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Vince Gilligan
I think it’s implicit when you write a story that you want to write a satisfying ending, but satisfaction is really removed from emotion – in a sense it operates independently from ideas of happy or sad. Some of the most satisfying endings can be very sad indeed or conversely very happy.It was complicated ending the stories of such a great number of characters though because you want to pay them all off.
|
The lack of a "walking off into the sunset" is not the issue with ME3. There's a difference between tone and payoff.
Also, I'm not sure how much the following factors in, but you were well-prepared to brace yourself for a lackluster ending and therefore likely lowered your expectations to some degree. I'm currently in the fifth season of The Sopranos and am well aware that plenty of folks were unsatisfied with the series finale. This is inevitably going to affect my overall impression of the finale, because I know not to expect payoff.
In any case, Mass Effect is a fine series. I am however extremely wary of the streamlined, simplified approach Bioware has adopted for its recent games and will hold off on trying further Dragon Age,ME, or KOTOR (maybe? with the recent acquisition?) titles until reviews roll in