Before the weekend even hit, a fan movement called RetakeMassEffect popped up, complete with a Facebook group, a Twitter account, and forum signature banners designating “fleets” organized by geographic location. But within just days of ME3’s release on March 6, it was clear that something had gone very wrong. BioWare itself is one of the big moneymakers in the gaming industry, responsible for some of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed RPGs ever made.Įndings are always difficult to pull off, especially for ongoing series. One can assume that most people who purchased the game have long since purchased the other two games at a similar price, as well as at least some of the aforementioned books, comics, and DLC. The standard edition of ME3 costs sixty dollars. That’s one hundred hours, stretched over five years, interspersed with books, comics, and additional downloadable missions that play out like bridging miniseries. With its final installment in place, the series now takes roughly one hundred hours to play through (depending on the speed of the player). ME3 sold nearly a million copies within twenty-four hours of being released. It is perhaps the game’s biggest selling point. BioWare, the developer behind the series, is keenly aware of this fact. This is a sentiment shared by many long-time fans. The end result for the player is a level of emotional investment that I have yet to experience in any other story, be it game, book or movie. It is rumored that there are well over a thousand storytelling variables that could be imported into ME3. The player decides who Shepard is friends with, who she falls in love with, if she is compassionate or pragmatic, who she lets live and who she leaves to die. The player’s decisions affect not just the plot of the story, but Shepard’s personality and social ties as well. The protagonist, Commander Shepard, can be male or female, and any race of your choosing (for convenience’s sake, I’m going to refer to Shepard as “her” for the remainder of the article). While the series’ gameplay mechanics themselves are top-notch, what keeps fans coming back is the staggeringly customizable story. A recent essay at i09 called the series “the most important science fiction universe of our generation.” An article at Scientific American hailed the setting of Mass Effect as “one of the most carefully and completely imagined sci-fi universes out there.” It is considered by many to be an example of one of gaming’s first true epics. Within the world of science fiction, Mass Effect’s contributions cannot be ignored. The Mass Effect trilogy is a sprawling, intense space opera, adored by fans, lauded by critics, and honored by more awards than I can count. To start, let’s review just how big a deal this series is. However, if you don’t want your opinion of the ending influenced in the slightest, you may want to put this article aside until you finish the game. While I will be outlining the narrative issues that some fans have, I will be doing so in the most general terms by leaving characters, events and locations out of the discussion entirely. As some of you haven’t finished the game yet (not least of which, the managing editor of this very site, who would have to read this post at some point), and as some of you have no background with this series at all, I’m going to attempt to lay this whole thing out as spoiler-free and easily-accessible as possible. I’m just here to explain what’s going on and why it’s rather important. There are already plenty of articles arguing for or against a new ending, so I’m not going to go there. That said, I’m going to do my best to stay objective.
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