The ending...five years later. And my farewell to it.

Five years later, it's time to say my final words about ME3.

That was my first (and last) game preorder. The hype was immense; even before starting I tried to keep levelheaded to prevent disappointment. But the game was living up to expectations, till Tuchanka at least. When I started Rannoch, I sated feeling a kind of unease: where the hell is Harbinger? What the Crucible really is? Why the Geth are behaving this way? Why we are wasting time here, with so many questions unanswered? The sense of unease just became bigger, as the hours passes; we were fighting freaking Cerberus, wasting time again and again, and there was no real explanation on what the Reapers really were and what the Crucible was!

All the game felt strange. I don't know if it was the lead writer's change. I only felt all the characters were a bit...off. Not like themselves. The narrative structure was kind of surreal as well. I think some people who supported Indoctrination Theory did it not only for the endings, but because of this strangeness.

Priority Earth gave me a sense of dread; I was fine with a hopeless battle, but being railroaded into it without feeling any of ME1 and 2, man, was a bummer.

I don't have to say anything about the endings, the linked video can do it better than me.




To say I was "sad" with my ME3 experience is an understatement. I couldn't understand how they failed so hard with the third act and the finale. The game felt rushed since the beggining, and broke itself apart in its final minutes. All the awe and inspiration of ME1,  all ME2' feeling of companionship, the thrill of the suicide mission, gone.

I was bitter for two freaking years. Two. Freaking. Years.

I ranted in the old forums. Told all my gamer and non-gamer friends about its narrative disaster, all the inconsistencies. It was not healthy. It was an obssession, like seeing a trainwreck over and over again. Finally my wife told me to stop going to the forums and stop playing ME3 altogether (I was regularly playing ME3MP at the time; I only finished the game once). I kept myself from playing for almost two years, before stating ME3MP again. Downloaded the Citadel DLC and tried to play it, but I simply couldn't bother. The anger faded away, but I wasn't invested anymore.

I made my peace with ME3 endings. I really did. I can look at all the events that lead to it, and understand why it happened.

But I will never, ever, enjoy them. For me, they will always be a textbook on how to NOT end any story, NOT do things without peer review, and to NEVER disrespect your own source material/ themes/ audience/ soty/ lore/ etc..




With  MEA on the horizon, I bid ME3 farewell. You will NOT be missed (except MP, of course!).