lets_play

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I purposely stayed from reading any reviews, listening to any gaming podcasts, going on any gaming websites, basically tuned myself completely out from all media involved in gaming form the first day ME3 came out on March 6th, until the day I finished on march 13th. My initial feeling of the game I just played and finished, was simply WOW! And there were plenty of those moments throughout as well. This is on a short list of games that put me on such a ride, emotionally. There is so much heart in this game, the character development is off the charts. The story was grim and the desperation was evident. As the story went on I really began to get a sense of how this would end up. Little did I know that, the result of my initial playthrough would result in one of the worst, of the possible endings, and I still accepted it, and liked it. Shepherd and these other noble heroes sacrificing themselves for the future, is nothing short of spot on. Almost immediately after finishing the game, I went to Metacritic because I wanted to see other people's reactions to the game, and what the "pros" in the industry had to say as well. Then I saw it and I was beside myself!!!! Terrible user scores and as I dug deeper into the why, I was appalled! I thought maybe, I had searched the wrong game as all I saw was a cry baby effect! Look the ending may have left something to be desired, but I will ALWAYS side with the right of the creative forces behind the art, to do what they want with THEIR art, and not with those that stomp their feet and hold their breath like loud obnoxious spoiled children. IMO, this is the epitome of all that is wrong with our society and unfortunately is becoming more and more prevalent in it. This sense of entitlement, and utter outrage when things don't go as we see that they should. Everyone has the right to make their voices heard, and they should, but there is a proper way to do it. And I really thought this community of gamers, was above the idiotic 99% mentality, when it comes to making our voices heard. Everyone of those that, IMO, went too **** go out and make your own game. You can make it ANY way YOU want! Just like those at Bioware can make their game anyway THEY want. Have we all really forgotten to put ourselves in other peoples shoes, for even a second and rationalize things, in the hopes of making sense of something we don't agree with? Or are we barreling down a moral slope where we just stomp our fists in anger and he who yells the loudest wins? Also, really!?!?! Zero scores form users??? Wow, I mean c'mon, even if the assertion that the ending was horrible, the other 30+ hours were amazing, or at least somewhere in the middle. Lastly, I just have to say that I've seen all the arguments why the ending was "horrible" and have to say I can only give credence to one and that is that it was too ambiguous. There wasn't the necessary closure and I'll get to that in a second. Thinking back on things that happened in the first two games, things the story told us, the ending makes PERFECT sense, and is one of the most well put together stories ever (in any medium). They were telling us all along how it was going to play out and it did. The clues were there all along, we just had to pay attention to them and be able to bring the memories of them back when we needed them, maybe that's why it was so confusing because it didn't (outright) spell everything out for us, but kept the heart of the game in tact right up to the final decision, in that it was always about making the best decision based on the knowledge we had about the situation and living with the consequences, or just making the decision based on what we just "wanted to do", point is it was up to the player, the information was put in front of us and it was up to us to decide 1) how to play the game, 2) how much to prepare for the final battle and 3) the final decision (along with the romances, relationship stuff as well.) But to all those that said it made no sense, it did (at least to me) and I'm good with that! I really feel sorry for you all that it upset you so much but that's life (it is) and should be dealt with accordingly. I know this series (which I hold as one of the greatest ever) took a LOT of all of us, time wise, emotionally, **** at the end of the day it's still just a game and Bioware doesn't OWE us anything. They, like us, can CHOOSE, to make the game how they feel it best, and we can choose to support their future projects how we feel is most appropriate. But yeah, I would have liked to see more of what happened to all those characters I came to love so much, but that's not 100% necessary either. We'll either find out (one way or the other) or I have a very good imagination and am able to think it through logically enough that I'd bet I'd be pretty close to being right! Thanks Bioware, for a GREAT game and series. It really was a wonderful ride!