-WARNING, ENDGAME SPOILERS-
What I saw in a video (wanted to see where the “point of no return” was), was true honor and sacrifice to save Earth. Unfortunately it causes a major setback of all Mass Relays destroyed, stranding every race in the galaxy.
It also causes the Normandy to be partially damaged but not destroyed. It crash lands on an unknown planet. The crew survives, but they’re stranded. It’s there the credits roll and the game is over.
It’s safe to say ME3 has no freeplay after the main quest. Seeing how everyone’s stranded because of no relays. And that’s not even the “best” ending. The “best” one has the Citadel destroyed on top of it.
Was THIS the Protheans were planning to do if they were able to finish their weapon to stop the Reapers? You could call it drastic, but maybe they didn’t have a choice.
At the end, Shepard is faced with three options. Destroy the Reapers, join man and machine, or control them. All three options, he (or she if a FemShep) still dies. And the Relays STILL get destroyed. It all depends on how much War Assets that were collected if Earth is saved or not.
Destroying or Controlling the Reapers also destroys every robot, including EDI and the Geth. But joining saves EDI at the end. But it also merges all organic life forms with synthetics; makes them all cyborgs.
Shepard did say, once; “Whatever it takes to stop the Reapers. Even if it kills me.” Yet no one knew this would be his only option.
Other people are upset that the Normandy “chickened out” after Shepard chose. Because it shows Joker trying to escape the shockwave of Sol’s relay with the ship damaged already. Then it crash lands on that unknown planet and they act like “Well, this is our new lives” without even worrying about what happened to Shepard.
If that’s not all, in one of Mass Effect 2’s DLC’s, they plainly mention when a relay blows up, the system it’s in goes with it. Which would of destroyed Earth and our entire system, making what Shepard did pointless. Not to mention it would of wiped out the military forces that were trying to save Earth. The irony.
Yet somehow, it didn’t. My guess is the beam isn’t an asteroid. Yet it still blew up the relays. But, the Normandy… again, no one really knows. The words “doesn’t make sense” have been used alot.
I…I really don’t know what to say now, only that my desire to play this game anymore has dropped big time. For them to just… stop the game right there when no one knows how anyone would survive without the relays. And what about Joker and the rest of the team? How are they going to get off that planet?
They could of at least made a small area of the Normandy team calling for help or trying to repair the ship.
But, they didn’t. They just leave you guessing. Maybe in a future DLC (hopefully it’s a free one). This is possibly The End of the Mass Effect series. Cause it’s unlikely there’s going to be a Mass Effect 4 after this.
I do have to agree with the comments I read on Amazon.com. The ending is disappointing. One thing’s for certain; Bioware sure knows how to do drama.
And the only thing they can say about it? “We’re sorry”.