{"id":35522,"date":"2012-04-05T16:00:26","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=35522"},"modified":"2012-04-05T18:02:07","modified_gmt":"2012-04-05T16:02:07","slug":"mass-effect-3s-ending-isnt-that-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/35522-mass-effect-3s-ending-isnt-that-bad","title":{"rendered":"Mass Effect 3’s ending isn’t that bad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spoilers commence now.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For those who may have missed it, the backlash to Mass Effect 3\u2019s ending has been tremendous.<\/p>\n

Enraged fans have taken to the Internets demanding satisfaction with the usual online petitions and forum polls. One such support group, calling itself \u201cRetake Mass Effect\u201d, even launched a charity drive on ChipIn.com for Child\u2019s Play<\/a>, raising $80,000 in the process.<\/p>\n

Child\u2019s Play put a stop to this with co-founder and Penny Arcade cartoonist Jerry Holkins saying<\/a> in a blog post: \u201cChild\u2019s Play cannot be a tool to draw attention to a cause. Child\u2019s Play must be the Cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the massive outcry against the ending, I submit that it isn\u2019t that bad.<\/p>\n

The illusion of choice<\/h3>\n

Although there are fairly plausible rumours that the real finale is yet to be released as a download, it\u2019s also worth looking at the ending of Mass Effect 3 in the context of the rest of the series.<\/p>\n

At the end of the first game, none of the choices you made leading up to the finale affected the last big decision you had to make. You were simply presented with two unpleasant choices: Save the council at the cost of human lives, or let them die to minimise casualties.<\/p>\n

The options I would have preferred, and which I think might\u2019ve been more realistic, weren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

The ending of Mass Effect 2 was more satisfying, and yet still your final decision boiled down to whether Shepard hands the Collector base over to Cerberus, or destroys it.<\/p>\n

Nothing he did leading up to that point could affect this decision, which appeared monumental.<\/p>\n

Never as it seems<\/h3>\n

Mass Effect has always been more of a telling of Shepard\u2019s story, rather than you actually being Shepard. We\u2019re more of a guide, rather than the character itself. Shepard\u2019s own Jiminy Cricket, if you will.<\/p>\n

We choose conversation options without knowing exactly what will come out of Shepard\u2019s mouth, similarly so for the Paragon or Renegade interrupts.<\/p>\n

All that said, it\u2019s impossible to ignore what has become known as \u201cThe Indoctrination Theory\u201d, which states that the end of Mass Effect 3 isn\u2019t the real ending. The below video is a well put-together primer on what the theory proposes.<\/p>\n