At My Limit: A Case for Mass Effect 3

Note: Before I get started, I'll explain why I didn't post at all last week. Well, I realized that I don't have the resources it takes to constantly review new games as they come out. If I review older games, all I do is sit on my soap box and voice my opinion, which is essentially what I do during "At My Limit"s. So I have decided to change up my schedule a bit. I will only be reviewing games when I have something recent to review, or when I want to give a throwback review to an amazing game. So from now on I'll be doing At My Limit on Tuesdays, and my Saturday slot will be replaced by a video game news recap of the week.

SPOILER ALERT! IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED THE MASS EFFECT GAMES AND DO NOT WANT THE PLOT SPOILED DO NOT CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE!

Mass Effect 3 has sparked one of the biggest controversies in recent gaming history. The controversy doesn't revolve around the game's violence, potential sexual content, swearing, or even the fact that it gives you the option for a homosexual romance. No, the game's controversy comes from it's ending. Many fans have played the entire Mass Effect trilogy and been disappointed once they reached the end. In fact, after the release of the 3rd game the series lost a lot of fans, and most of those who remained weren't happy. Bioware, the developer, even released an extended version of the endings to fix some of their mistakes, but people still were not happy. Why is this?

The story of Mass Effect revolves around a soldier, named Commander Shepard, who is trying to stop the destruction of the galaxy caused by a race of giant nearly indestructible sentient machines called the "reapers". You postpone their attack in the first game, and then postpone it again in the second, but in the end they still make it to the milky way galaxy and start purging all sentient life. You find schematics of a super weapon that could be used to destroy them in a relic from an ancient space faring race. 

Male Commander Shepard

You rally the galaxy to develop this weapon, and then prepare to fire it. It malfunctions and you have to go to its main controls and fix it. At the controls an AI appears and explains to you that he created the reapers. The reapers purpose is to destroy all sentient races when they reach a certain level of technology so they do not end up in constant war. He explains that this solution is now obsolete since you are so close to destroying them. He gives you 3 options. You can destroy them, as you had planned. You can control them and do what you want with the reapers. Or you can cause a synthesis between all organic and synthetic life creating a lasting peace across the galaxy. 

If you destroy the reapers you destroy all synthetic life, and cause damage to a lot of the essential technology throughout the galaxy. If choose synthesis, there is indeed lasting peace throughout the galaxy, and no damage is done outside that which the reapers had previously caused. If you choose to control the reapers, some technology is damaged, but you, now in control of the reapers use them to rebuild and defend the galaxy. In all 3 endings, you pretty much die.

A Reaper

Most people tend to choose the destroy ending, which is sad because that is the worst of the 3 endings. One of the biggest complaints is that Shepard dies and there is no way to prevent it. To this I have one response: seriously? Most of the conversations of Mass Effect 3 create a foreboding feeling of doom that points to Shepard's death. Shepard himself constantly reminds us that he is simply human, just another soldier, nothing special. He even has a dream leading up to the final battle which shows him engulfed in flames. The game pointed at it the whole time. You had plenty of time to prepare yourself for it.

This doesn't address the basis for those complaints though. Mass Effect is a game about player choice. It gives you several options for completing your mission and allows you to develop the character you desire. Most of your decisions influence the outcome of the current game, as well as the sequels. Most people feel that the end of Mass Effect 3 makes their choices pointless. On the contrary, Mass Effect 3 values the choices that you've made, and the effort that you put into the game. However, it also tells you that just because you are the main character, it doesn't mean you will live.

We do not have control over life, we just think we do. But when it all comes down to it, we can do nothing to prevent our own death if something beyond us comes along. If a atomic bomb falls from the sky, there is virtually nothing we can do to prevent our demise. So why should it be any different in Shepard's case? He has stood strong and conquered unbeatable odds multiple times, he even did something that no race was able to accomplish in over 50,000 years, and now he has the opportunity to save the galaxy! The price is simply his life. Really people? How self centered are you? You have become so attached to the character you designed that it pains you to sacrifice him for the lives of the entire galaxy? Just think about that.

Another complaint is that the story of 3 doesn't work with the lore of the previous games. Having just finished the third game, and started a play through of all 3 games, I can say that this is completely ungrounded. Mass Effect 3's story was set up since Mass Effect 1. Most of the concepts that are re-explained in 3 were present in 1. Another complaint is that the reapers allow races to live provided they serve them, which doesn't add up with their purpose of purging the galaxy. In Mass Effect 1 it is explained that the Reapers destroy all the technology as well, and brainwash those who serve them, then when they are finished they leave them to die to exposure or starvation on now barren worlds.

I understand where the complaints came from when there was not much explained about the ending. But thanks to the extended cut, our questions are answered. So why is it, that nearly a year later people are still whining about the endings? Maybe because its not how they wanted it to end. Yet another illustration of how self centered we are, thinking that we can control exactly how a series ends. Don't get me wrong, there were some things in Mass Effect 3 that I was disappointed in. There is a significant decrease in the conversation options in 3, and you can't really talk to your crew mates as much as in the previous games. But you don't really need to either.

Mass Effect 3 has earned several Game of the Year awards, it received high ratings, and people are still playing it. Its time for us to grow up and realize that the stories of video games are not about us. Are they designed for our enjoyment? Yes. But they do not revolve around the characters that we enjoy. I can accept if you didn't like Mass Effect 3, but don't just bandwagon on ideas that are a year old and still ungrounded.