Gaming Game endings: are we being too harsh?

The great irony is that Deus Ex's ending was almost exactly the same as Mass Effect 3's - think about it:

You have 3 Choices, made right in the final scene

Spoiler

(Helios, Illuminati, New Dark Age vs Synthesis, Control and Destroy)

. Once you choose one, you get a short cinematic with some 'splosions. There's no exposition about what your choice means for the future or what happens to your friends.

Don't get me wrong, Deus Ex was good for its time, but there's been better since.

 

A testament to people's feeling on the ending of ME3, when I played the game, I deliberately went on internet blackout. I made sure I read absolutely nothing about the game, this way I didn't corrupt my experience.

So, when I reached the ending, I can say with certainty that the experience I had was my own.

So when I finally made it to the end,

Spoiler

and dealt with the illusive man, and made it the final sequence. Then I had the dialog with the child. At the end of said dialog, I was confused as hell. The whole creator vs created stuff was completely off the wall. Why yes, it did have a part in the story, I never felt it was ever a large driving force.

What really confused me, was when you learned the geth's history, you learned it was actually the quarians who started the war, and who constantly perpetrated it. With the geth pretty content to mind their own business. So the whole argument that the created will always rebel against their creators makes absolutely no sense. It was invalidated by the game's story in numerous occasions. So in reality it really should have been the creators will always rebel against the created.

After I finished the dialog with the star child, I was lost. I wandered to every corner in the room to see if I had somehow missed something.

Even then as further proof that bioware cobbled the ending together last minute, there was no option to even further talk to the star-child, it just didn't exist. Even then the dialog you did have, some of it didn't even take in account for choices you made, for example if you killed all of the geth, the star child still said "red option will kill all synthetics including the geth..."

So many journalists seem to be completely missing the point on the issue with the ending.

To me it's not that not enough effort was put into it, or that not enough ends were closed. The issue is, the ending is so opposite to every part of all the other games, that it felt like ME3's ending was accidentally taken from the wrong scifi game.

Just about the entire ME story arc was pretty good at keeping with the game's canon, there are certainly a few places where it was a little weak but on the whole pretty good. Then the ending hit, and it was more a moment of "We had a story before now?"

 

We can at least hope the "new" ending will rectify at least some of the issues.

 

More or less my own thoughs. It's the final game in a trilogy, a trilogy which claims to have an exciting and involving story in which the player's choices have a lasting impact. Let's be honest, from the beginning Mass Effect has never been well known for its gameplay, take out the story and it's Hallway Simulator 2: Rise of the Corridors. Obviously the people who are excited for ME3 have already dealt with this for two games and think the story makes up for it. Skimping on the gameplay will get flak from previous critics from the first games (such as myself), but skimp on the story and you're going to be getting some serious hate from even your own fans.

 

Well. In a short sentence, when devs promised "Widly diverse" and we get multicoloured explosions as the diversity, the community can be pissed!

Long story short, don't promise what you don't do.

 

Even the mighty Half Life had a shite ending

 

Mass Effect 3 ending was lazy and awful.

After playing and enjoying the Mass Effect 3 trilogy and following it since the release of the first game, my final memory was of wanting to throw my keyboard through the window in rage.

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=312

 

I really lost interest in the gameplay of ME once I started playing the second one. If it wasn't for the (IMO) downright ****ing awesome universe and story, I would have given up on it. But no, I finished it, was very satisfied with the story (shame the gameplay was stale).

ME3 rolls around, and I know what to expect; ME2 but with a melee attack. But, in the only example I can actually think of where I intended from the onset to play a game entirely for the story, I managed to play through the whole thing, and while the combat was as boring as ever, I really enjoyed the story. Granted, a lot of the overarching plot felt forced and a bit cliche, but it really did have it's epic parts. There were moments that gave me tingles, moments that made my eyes water, and some awesome consequences to your choices. That is, right up until the end.

They pulled a deus ex machina on us in every possible way. Space God, space magic, and a ****-ton of ******** that made no sense. Two of the endings were pretty much what other agents in the game had been trying to achieve, and the whole "synthetic vs organic" excuse is entirely blown out of the water by the fact THE ****ING GETH WERE ON MY SIDE AGAINST THE REAPERS.

I'm sorry, but the ending for ME3 deserves all the **** it gets. And more. From what I hear, practically the whole team had a say in the story right up until the end, and then Ray and Casey (IIRC) took the reigns on their own for the ending. And it ****ing shows.

So many plots holes, inconsistencies, and contradictions. It's no wonder there are literally documents, dozens of pages worth in total, going through what is wrong with it.

And the worst part is, so called "journalists" thinking we were just upset because the ending wasn't chocolate covered and the Crucible didn't ejaculate rainbows. I think any real journalist would have actually looked in to why everyone was so pissed off.

I guess that teaches me to ever play a game only for its story again.

 

Don't even get me started on the ending- it was an absolute disgrace. The author of this article should watch this video and they quietly leave the room. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b33tJx8iy0A

 

Love this, absolutely agree.

Its not a hype thing at all, it is simply quite a baffling moment when you reach the end of what was a simply brilliant game, and trilogy- and are then presented with such a poor attempt at concluding the saga of Shepard. Nothing at all is represented in what players had done the entire playthrough of the trilogy.

 

Just to clarify I'm not saying in the article the Mass Effect 3 ending wasn't a disappointment: quite the opposite, I'm saying bad endings are a systemic problem for games, and ME3 was no exception.

 

For me, plot is essential in a game - it's the thing that keeps me going, even though I might not enjoy the gameplay so much....
I have a LOT of games (the value of my steam account is such that if I told you I'd have to kill you! and looking through, the games I've finished, or gotten furthest on, are ones which have had plot - heck Reccetear - if it hadn't had a plot that actually made me *want* to go on, is a game i wouldn't have touched...
Don't get me wrong, I have a bunch of games I play to let off steam, including Serious Sams...
ME is a game I have yet to finish, so haven't touched 2 or three, but I do know about the controversy behind it, and can fully understand the outrage going on.
This evening, because I'm down my PC - it's in pieces, and I'm on a very old Compaq laptop, which isn't really made for games, I've dug out my copy of Theme Hospital..
Does it have plot? Not vastly... but it has enough to carry me through the EXTREMELY frustrating 6th level, where I inevitably run out of funds...
Also, I apologise for the disjointed nature of this comment... I'm typing as it comes to me... thinking about 2011, and the games I put the most time into over that time... in no particular order..
Puzzle Kingdoms - played from start to finish, because I wanted to find out what happened to the kingdom when you won. (Plot was integral to my playing)
Final Fantasy XIII (I want to know what happens to the characters!)
Skyrim (Loving the plot, and all the side quests)
Portal - again, want to know what happens to Chell...
The only game that wasn't plot driven was Defense Grid.

So... yeah I think if there's a crap ending, it actually *does* matter...

 

I think that people aren't critical enough. People tend to be pretty forgiving of plot holes, bad storytelling, bad characterization, continuity errors, etc. as long as a game has some really cool or memorable moments.

Like with Mass Effect 3, even people who hate the ending will say that the rest of the game is awesome. And yet, it has a lot more plot holes, continuity errors, and just plain bad storytelling than ME1 and 2.

In fact, I would say that Mass Effect started having some serious problems starting with the Arrival DLC. Think about it, a big part of the first game was about Saren and Sovereign trying to prevent Shepard from decoding the message of the Prothean Beacon and learning about the existence of the Reapers.

When Shepard learns the truth, it's revealed that the Reapers destroy evidence of their existence to ensure that no one can ever learn about them and prepare a defense. Even Reaper artifacts and the dead Reaper in ME2 reveal no information about the Reapers or the cycles of galactic destruction.

So why would the Reapers intentionally leave behind an artifact, the one they discover in The Arrival, that not only reveals their exist and their plan to wipe out the galaxy but also gives information on their top secret back up plan to invade the galaxy?

 

no

 

Imma let you finish, but Max Payne 2 had one of the best combined story and gameplay mechanics I've ever played

Obviously if you don't like shooters or ridiculous pulp noir cliches, you may disagree, but for me it remains one of the best examples of what happens when narrative and mechanics work together. You have the basic ramping up of difficulty and intensity throughout; in the early stages you can be a little clever-er, sneaking about, using cover, picking your moments... but by the end you are chasing/being chased every inch of the way, being forced to use your initiative, use every trick in the book you've learned so far... and it matches perfectly with the plot points: betrayal, revenge, delusions/hallucinations and your typical organised crime style shootouts/bloodbath.

Maybe the Mass Effect problem by comparison is that you have too much start/stopping - here is the narrative, here is the gameplay. Having said that, having watched someone else play the run up to the end of ME3, I was reminded of this 'last ditch intense battle harder than anything else you've done so far' type of mechanic... then it drops you back into "narrative mode" and it all seems a bit underwhelming.

The ME3 ending (while fairly standard by the example of other, mediocre games) I hope should be a big lesson learned for the industry and the consumers mindset too. Take the content aside, it is poorly executed and doesn't live up to their hype and their standards.

I fully agree that most journos covering this (specialists too, not just mainstream) miss the point, but I'm glad it has caused such a controversy. Sadly I can only imagine that the wheels were set in motion for this when Bioware signed up to do ME2 with EA - shipping dates set, somewhat irrelevant multiplayer included, arguably some dumbing down of gameplay, enormous hype machine, the day one DLC issue, the little 'well done now buy some DLC' box that pops up at the end,the face import glitch, the current free DLC that appears to have knackered up some 360 copies... and we can probably add 'The New Ending That Will Probably Not Help Things' to this list.

 

The only game ending I've hated recently was Batman: Arkham City. I enjoyed the game but was in a semi state of rage when i got to the end. I won't spoil it for anyone whos yet to finish it (it'll do that for you) but it's been a very long time since i was so ****ed off at the end of a game.

ME3 ending left a lot to be desired but I could see what the team was aiming for even if they missed it. It didn't make a whole lot of sense as just about every other thread here has pointed out but the style and tone of the ending i could understand.

 

Being too harsh? No. Being too lenient on the rest of the game? Definitely. Fact is that Mass Effect 3 has a **** story all throughout full of plot holes, inconsistencies, stupid characters, poor pacing, etc., and complaining solely about the ending is pretty unproductive. Yes, it's the cherry on the cake, but the cake is still sickeningly awful even ignoring how bad the topping might be. BioWare aren't going to learn to write competently if we focus entirely on the game's ending and let them get away with sub-fanfic-level crap and soap opera trash romances.

 

I liked portal and the witchers ending a lot.. there was this game called velvet assassin- I don't know why but the end was just so sad.. it was like everything you worked for in the game didn't matter and you couldn't even save them- they are right behind a door in a burning church and your character is helpless and it goes to sad music with painted concept art running across the background

least velvet was a good game though- but I don't like endings like that.. now fear 2- you might as well stick cheetos in both ears.. same with dragon age 2.. dragon age had a decent boss fight at the end- but that's it.. the rest of the game was pretty bad unlike the original imo

me3 endings were too similar.. they are working on it though- it's ea they ruin everything original it seems and turn it into a donkey show

 

I actually really liked the ending for Arkham City... I disliked the 'game' part of the ending - it was rubbish and no challenge,

Spoiler

but the story of what happens at the end I thought was quite brilliant, if only because he's my favourite character in that comic universe, and for me it was a real wrencher that he dies!

 

There was a time back in the day of early home computing when simply completing a game seemed to be enough reward in and of itself and a simple "The End" sufficed. We have come a long, long way since those days and a darn good story and an ending that brings some sense of closure and finality to your efforts even if there is a cliffhanger or signs of a sequel laid out shows us that our time and efforts have not been wasted.

I enjoy a variety of games from FPS to RPG's but most of them suffer from throwing in far to much mindless combat and not enough alternative ways to overcome a particular challenge and far too often the shoot / hack it to death wins out every time.

It really is about time that games gave us real choices, mortal choices which have consequences based on our actions. I love to see a big explosion or have a chance to snipe a target from a km away as much as I love to drive in the knife or stealth kill. I also happen to like not having to fight simply because its an easy option for developers to fill a gap but it brings the game down, give me some quiet moments to walk through the wilderness without being attacked or savaged, let me retread paths previously travelled without some random spawn popping up to fill the void. Silence brings tension and atmosphere as other games out there have proven.

Most of all give us credit where credit is due, it takes time and money to create the game in the first place and it takes people money and time to play it when its done. Lets not waste your development time or our meager lifespan playing games for the sake of it, give us a reason to want to complete it that drives us to play it again to experience new angles and gives us a fresh vibrant experience each time we reach those final moments to savour our victory (or failure) to know that we took our part in that story, lived that life and absorbed ourselves in the experience not just as if we were there, because we were there for every waking moment.