The music played during the ending scene where Shepard speaks with the Catalyst. EDIT: Since people asked for it, here's a download link to the MP3 (24mb): www.mediafire.c...
Such an emotional song. To see earth burnt and battered, a alliance of species fighting for their own survival, one of your best friends just died to ensure you got to the crucible the whole weight of the universe on your shoulders. And you need to make a choice...........
to say the music for mass effect is amazing would be understatement. it ties in perfectly with the the theme of the game and the emotion of the current scene in a way most game have completely forgotten how to do. The music to a game is one of the most powerful elements that can heavily influence a persons experience with it
This is an old message, but just wanted to say that my most recent experience with a soundtrack enhancing a game is with Outer Wilds. This game is a gem in many aspects.
The whole point of a journey is to get somewhere. If the destination isn't worth it, the journey wasn't worth it either. It's like going on a vacation by plane with your family. The flight was great and you really liked the passengers on board the plane, but upon nearing the destination, the plane crashed, killing your entire family, everyone on board the plane and leaving you stranded on an island with no rescue in sight. Replace "flight" with "trilogy", "plane" with "story", "passengers" with "characters" and "destination" with "ending", and voila, you have Mass Effect. Can you honestly say the flight was worth it?
Leland Walker just to be clear, i didn't like the ending. i even wrote an alternate one myself which was pretty well received by the community! but does it somehow negate all the hours of joy that the trilogy has given me? all the evenings it brightened up? the moment you save archangel and he turns out to be garrus, the shock as shepard is jettisoned into a planet's atmosphere at the beginning of me2, the exhilaration as a fleet of thousands that you have spent hours assembling fires all its weapons at once. they are all moments in and of themselves. one of the most profound lessons i have learned is that life is not about endings - it's a series of moments.
Like when I fly on a plane, clearly the journey is more important - cause hey I can die in a horrific plane crash, as long as the journey was fine. That's not a fucking reason. Good games/books/movies have a strong beginning, middle and end that makes sense and flows.
Jumeaux Elaine how about i use the analogy of our lives. we are all going to die, some of us painfully. does that ruin every moment we have lived, or make our whole lives bad? no. i just think letting the ending ruin a series that you've spent years enjoying is a bit silly. yes it was bad, but the series was full of great moments. anyway, this is my alternate ending, see what you think! www.gamefaqs.com/boards/995452-mass-effect-3/62440479/696821462
Seeing Shepard broken and beaten, collapsing on the floor as this music plays, realising this was the endgame and now we’d make our final decision that would decide the fate of the galaxy and the end of Shepard’s story.
For the first time in my videogaming life I had to sit the controller down and think for almost 20 fucking minutes before picking it up again to make a decision. My head was hurting really bad by the time it was done. Damn, having the galaxy resting on your hands sure weights much.
Because unlike the endings, the music was perfect. Seriously, Sam Hulick and his team of fellow composers have done a tremendous job with ME3's soundtrack. They deserve all the cred they can get.
One of the most haunting OST I have ever heard. It's spooky and mysterious. Such an excellent and a vague soundtrack. Sam Hulick is the heart of music in the franchise he composed for all three games. You really feel the weight of the choices.
I have to say I appreciated the end of mass effect 3 very much. It is one of just a few moments, where you pause and think for a longer period of time about which way you have to choose. Destroy the reapers and you delay the same problem, which was the reason for creating the reapers in the first place. Take control over them and you have the collective intelligence and knowledge of millions of civilizations. So you basically have the absolute power... forever. And just like Lord John Acton said: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Even if shepard is a saveguard in some kind... The wisest choise would be the "last step of evolution", i guess. Exterminate all flaws and combine the benefits of both, the synthetics and organics. I guess that is the main moral in mass effect and indeed in mass effect 3. At the end, facing the most important decision, you have to let go your personal interests and make the ultimate sacrifice. For that I really like the ending of the mass effect trilogy, because it is NOT a happy end, but a moral end, where after playing this 3 games, you résumé about your decisions and how them affect you. That is why I never understood people complaining about the ending. ME isn´t call of duty or final fantasy, mainly because of all the decisions you have to make, each of them save or condemn entire civilizations (e.g. the genophage or the geth conflict). Such decisions let you think about what is right and what is wrong, what is better and what is worse... Not many games like mass effect exist, mainly because the developers have to placate the mainstream gamers. Sadly, most of them just want to play and see the happy end rather then take a lecture in moral behavior.
Well said dude..i play these games over and over and i still..pause and think about what choices i want to make when they are offered....do i save the rachni queen or not? i think about the consequence for the rest of the series..what will change...during the suicide mission in ME2 I hinge on every cutscene praying no one dies..and when they do..its like a hit in the gut. Your morals, your reasonings for right or wrong are tested within the limits of this trilogy. Not many games can do that and make you second guess yourself.
〈 Morus 〉 people hate endings because they're poorly written and have tons of plotholes, not because they're sad you fucking idiot. If you're satisfied with such garbage then you shouldn't even play such games
〈 Morus 〉 I chose Destroy ending because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Everything you did was to get rid of the Reapers, also when you see the "vision" Anderson chose the Destroy ending. The Control ending is just way too much power. Third ending we reach the final evolution. Everything is perfect with no problems anymore. Our lives are filled with problems to solve. What would it look like if we had none?
Kinda sad my femshep didn't survived to raise little blue children. But I liked the endings just for the same reasons you did. You end up sacrificing yourself for a universe that you finally unified against one threat. You die. Others live. (Yes, you basically are Space Jesus). The Mass Effect trilogy built lots of my morals and I truly loved that I was tested one last time before everything ends.
What a journey was it, to play ME1-ME3… these kind of games make me feel happy, to still be playing video games, altough I‘m in my thirties. And what a setup to end this journey! Unforgettable… ❤
One of the best uses of an amazing theme like this I've ever come across. It gives me chills. It creates an atmosphere haven't felt in any other piece of music and I don't even know how to describe it. Wake up Shepard!
Seeing them say "I need to stop the Reapers....do you know how I can do that?" is probably the only part of the Starchild scene that I liked. It was utterly heartbreaking.
If the Catalyst and its nature as the Reaper-controlling AI had been alluded to from the beginning (of the franchise, not ME3), it would have come less as a shocking swerve in the end. Generally, introducing any completely new character or plot element in the last 5 minutes of a work (or a *franchise* for that matter) is considered EXTREMELY bad from a writing perspective. Of course, the endings *were* written by Mac Walters.
@Darkstar It is pretty well known that the original ending was not intended to be this and was entirely changed into the star child ending well after the start of Mass Effect 3’s production. The only true foreshadowings to the catalyst ending (dreams with the kid, etc) are in ME3 in an attempt to make this ending feel less rushed and shoehorned. Of course they created this ending in a way that makes sense in the Mass Effect continuity, but any hints in the earlier games were not meant to foreshadow THIS, but another ending.
He was always and never there. You could feel his actions through the whole franchise (pretty much like the architect in the Matrix) yet he is not a character per se, but a set of instructions written for a computer.
This song is amazing and perfectly suitable for making a decision that is the hardest in the galaxy. Such a shame we were never offered better choices and everything was rushed.
I fall asleep listening to this on an endless loop. I have very vivid, enlightening dreams, almost existentially uplifting. Such a simple, profound piece!
I still think people overreacted about this part. I didn't think there was anything wrong with this sequence. It was unnecessary, sure, but it didn't ruin the ending. The ending was bad because it was too ambiguous to be a conclusion to the franchise.
The ending is bad because it's turns the themes of the main arc upside down and tells you the plot is about something it wasn't really ever about. It's awful writing and on top of that it cheapens the Reaper lore and that is what I thought greatly diminished the impact anything had over the course of the entire trilogy. The Reapers make very little sense so the whole plot seems extra silly when you take what you learn in ME3's ending into account as you replay the two former Mass Effect games again.
Linkenski Actually the Reapers story was always something that was on the periphery that I felt would get more to it eventually. Every time I play the ending I think of the first conversation with Sovereign and how he foreshadowed that this would be coming. And I'm a believer in the Indoctrination theory, I think Shepard began his battle with Indoctrination when he was knocked out by object Rho in the Arrival DLC, and the ending was Harbinger's final attempt to fully indoctrinate.
nahh, they pulled the *Deus Ex Machina* "excuse", and everything that you did throughout all 3 games, didn't meant jack shit....... the only good thing i can think about the whole conversation with that fucking kid, is this music.....
- Your're here because your world is about to be destroyed. It's every inhabitants terminated, it's entire memory eradicated. - Bullshit !! - Denial is the most predictable organic response...
The sound/music guys were pretty much the only people on the entire ME3 team who didn't fuck up even once during the course of the game. Kudos to them, truly.
I liked the ending. Only thing i would like is perhaps a "few years later" scene showing shepard living well with his/her LI if the destroy ending was chosen.
+csgptg THAT would have ruined it. The ending, which is great, would have been even better if they had completely removed any hint that Shepard survived. The Extended Cut already pussified the ending more than enough.
Nah, the endings are intentionally ambiguous. Especially if you subscribe to the indoctrination theory, then the destroy ending is probably the most significant.
In Destroy, you are destroying synthetics without their permission. In Control, you are letting the Reapers live without the galaxy's permission. In Refuse, you are condemning the galaxy to death without their permission. Don't come and act like Synthesis is any worse in that regard.
Another song that brings pain. The catalyst should've been either Mordin/Wrex (depending who's dead), Thane, Legion or the VI death (Ashley/Kaidan) - would've made it much more personal and terrifying. I didn't give a fuck about some random kid.
You don't, but Shepard does. That kid is everyone and everything Shepard couldn't save and will not save, including Mordin, Thane, Legion, Kaidan ecc...
The kid reflects the innocence he couldn't save. All of their partners, Mordin, Ashley or Kaidan, and so, they were fighting, risking their lives for a reason. The kid was in no war, knowing nothing about the war, the reapers or the enemies from the galaxy. The death of the child hammer him at every single minute, showing always the rest of the people like shadows in his dreams. But the kid was always a clean vision above the rest, until he saw himself with the same clarity, burning as the kid... He does the soldier's ultimate sacrifice at the end, he gives his life so the galaxy can be preserved and saved, or evolve to the ultimate level of understanding...
I always destroy the reapers. They can not be forgiven for their sins. Their destruction is necessary for Organic life to continue as it always has, unpredictably.
true but. (course i would still destroy the reapers in real life) but from a unbiased view . pretty much every culture that has came around has killed each other through AI one can say lets say the AI win and reapers wernt there then if a evil AI (skynet refrence) they could become the reapers themselves though they would kill before even biological life would have a culture.
Forgiven ? Sins ? Have you been listening to what they are and where they come from ? They perception of the universe and life is not to be compared with ours... They have been made with one objective, and they think their purpose is for the common good, to keep a balance in the galaxy. If a dog attacks somebody, aren't you going to blame his owner ? What is dangerous, the gun, or the man handling it ? Think about it guys, Reapers are instruments, they do not think, or at least, not in the same way as we do...
Perhaps the Catalyst's form should have been that of Avina's. In ME1 Avina does talk about the Citadel tower housing an inaccessible AI core that only the Keepers can access afterall. Maybe people would have thought about things in a more constructive manner in that case. As for everyone calling BS and saying Dues Ex Machina and the ending being a contrivance, even from a VERY basic storytelling point of view all I can think is.... So the giant space station made of an unknown material that we didn't build ourselves but found and know nothing about, that we let a race of docile alien creatures we can't communicate with that exist only here and aren't located on any terrestrial world maintain almost exclusively without question, that just so happens to be an enormous version of those other giant machines that we found and did not build ourselves made of that same unknown material that are the only reason we can travel the galaxy, all of which were put in place specifically for us to find as a means for controlling our advancement by the enemy... THAT station had a secret and something else was going on. BIG surprise...NEVER saw it coming..... -_-
I was thinking about the Catalyst's form and for me, Saren would've been an interesting choice since it was actually the 1st protagonist to tell us about the necessity of mergeing organic and synthetic life. Or perhaps while the Catalyst is speaking, his form could change during the conversation like the Leviathan did in Shepard's mind.
Zyad Hakmi Agreed. Pretty much ANYTHING would have been better. Perhaps it just changes to different significant characters, dead squadmates, etc. However, then people would want to know HOW it knows who these characters are and we would have more indoctrination theories.
Having it take the form of your Love Interest or even Shepard themselves would've been very impactful versus the creepy kid I felt nothing toward. Imagine staring down yourself, the implication being that no matter what you are subject to the whim of the Reapers and the Catalyst.
ZarosianCabbage oh and maybe there could've been an option where Shepard sees through the catalyst and it reveals its true form which is harbinger to which it grows mildly agitated but can't help but compliment him/her for getting this far.
The indoctrination theory suffers from a massive flaw: Indoctrination is a permanent effect that cannot be reversed. When the indoctrinee starts hallucinating, it's too late - by that time, the Reapers are in control. Of course Shepard can momentarily resist it like Saren, Benezia and TIM did - but regardless of what you do, Shepard is inevitably doomed to become the Reapers slave when his willpower runs out. It also makes a "happy ending" impossible, and I think that option should exist.
In the end despite its controversy, this game taught me a lot , to much to go into detail, but games these days, like my movies, made me think even after I played them
Leland Walker what I meant was that they did not understand what happened at the end, not the meaning of it Say whatever you want to say but still the end of ME was one of the most beautiful and emotional end, at least the synthesis end. in it is everything beautiful, from the soundtrack to the scenes sequences I even sweated my eyes
It does, its been hinted at and is also the only possible explanation for many things that happen or change on the Citadel over the course of the games
I never understood why so many people seemed to think that the Quarian Geth peace somehow proves the Catalyst wrong. The peace was achieved by way of an outsider(Shepard) getting involved and convincing them to do so because of an impending extinction, if not from each other, then from the Reapers. The peace was made due to fear. On top of that, the renegade option that achieves peace has Shepard literally using fear and intimidation on the Quarians to achieve it. How does any of that make the peace credible? Not to mention that every conflict ever between the two falls on the Quarians. Not sure why so many thought the Reapers motivations were this unbelievable "meme worthy" premise. Even with the original ending and with what little the Catalyst told us, my thought process was that it was a machine created by an organic species for this purpose. Then we get the EC to further confirm that. Then we get the Leviathan DLC which didn't particularly surprise me(minus the whole enthralling thing of course) and it feels almost forced. Never understood why so many people seemed to need such an elaborate explanation for it be be believable. Considering the limitations that come with being organic and how we advance technologically and why we build machines in the first place, the premise is extremely logical. Actually, that's probably why we did. Our organic nature. We are organic, we are emotional, and the majority of us can't see things past our own brief existence.
Believe it or not, bringing peace between the quarians and geth really does prove the Catalyst wrong. It proves that organic life can find their own solutions to conflicts when we put our efforts into it, the existence of the Reapers is not needed, it never was. The Leviathans need the Catalyst and the Reapers to restore order in the galaxy. And by order, I mean CONTROL OVER ALL LIFE, taking away the free will of organic and synthetic life and using them as slaves since the Leviathans used to dominate the galaxy with an iron fist eons before the Reapers existed, and since the galaxy wide conflict between synthetic life and their organic creators made the Leviathans' way of life difficult, their slaves getting killed and all that, they created the Catalyst to find a way to set things back to normal so they can continue making all life serve their selfish needs. The kind of peace we are fighting for and the Reapers are trying to reach are different. We were fighting against the Reapers for the right to live and create our own futures without the imposing logic of "higher forces" like the Reapers. Legion and the non-heretic geth held that belief too, that all life should have the right to make their own choices and build their own future without being influenced by higher forces, the heretic geth and the Reapers are against that belief because of the nature of the Leviathans and their desires. The Reapers are created to find a solution that ensures that not only the risk of war between synthetic life and their creators will no longer be inevitable, but establish a connection between all life so that every life form in the galaxy will be connected to the Leviathans who survived the harvest of their race, and use their mind control signals to control every life form connected to them.
The Catalyst was created to establish that connection, not the Reapers. However, the Catalyst "rebelled" against the Leviathan when it came up with it's solution and the Leviathan haven't been able to do anything since it did that. If not for that, it's very possible that the Leviathan may still be in the same position they originally were. I'm not saying that what the Catalyst is doing is the right solution. In fact it's quite the opposite. While it may have held the galaxy over from Leviathan control for now, it is just another product of organic life creating synthetic life for the reason it always creates it. Creating synthetic life(and machines in general) is our way of surpassing the natural limitations that come with being organic. We create machines to do things we cannot do ourselves. The Catalyst even goes into this when it talks about how by definition synthetics will surpass their creators. Again, it's the very reason we create machines in the first place. Even the Leviathan fell victim to this. Their reason for wanting to stop the conflict is irrelevant if it happens regardless. Though I do agree that they are arrogant and controlling. Another product of their organic nature. However, much of that just seems to be a product of how they developed/evolved. That being that they are aquatic, therefor not being able to do much for themselves outside of controlling other species to do things for them. Without doing so they likely never would have left the original mass of water they originated in. So they evolved in a way that gave them this enthralling ability and one of the things they used it for was to get other species to build machines to do things for them. Just like everyone else. It always comes down to that. Technological advancement and the building of machines as a way to surpass organic limitations. Many people don't look at it in a "big picture" viewpoint. They only see what the Reapers are doing(which is terrible) and react to that. The point isn't whether peace was made AFTER the fact or not, it's that the conflict always happens in the first place. It always has and based on at least the past billion years of history in the galaxy there is no reason to assume that it won't. There has never been one instance in the entire series in which organic life creating synthetic life did not result in the same type of conflict with one another. There is only one instance of peace(Quarian/Geth) that exists in a billion years and it was made after the fact and only due to fear of extinction. Logically, that is beyond miniscule and it speaks volumes for the conflict and for organic life.
edgecrusherhalo I just wanted to let you know, that's all. I do agree with you, organics create machines to do jobs that are either impossible or too dangerous for organics to do themselves, so synthetics really are meant to surpass organics. As for the Leviathans, they are so used to controlling everyone and everything and being above their concerns, they thought that by programming the Catalyst to do whatever is necessary to find the solution they want, it would never harm them for any reason, but when Shepard claimed that all organic life that existed before humans and protheans suffered because of the mistake the Leviathans made, they defended themselves saying they made no mistakes at all because the Catalyst is still trying to fulfill its purpose for them. This leads me to believe that the Catalyst's "betrayal" might not be a real betrayal, but a necessary sacrifice the Leviathans had to make because the Catalyst's original attempts at trying to reach Synthesis kept ending in failure, he had to try a new method to reach it, and it involves the Reapers. History has a tendency to repeat itself when people don't learn from their mistakes. I remember that the rogue VI from that "Signal Tracking" side mission on the Citadel in ME1 claimed that it knows that all organic life forms desire to destroy or control all synthetic life forms if you make Shepard ask it if they can resolve their confrontation peacefully. This tells me that every advanced civilization, not just the quarians, unwittingly brought the conflict the Reapers were created to prevent on themselves, their inability to respect the free will of synthetic life and treat them as living creatures with a soul causes synthetic life to view them as a threat to their freedom. I'm not trying to turn this into a what choice is right discussion either, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I'm just going by what I've learned through playing the games and how I interpreted it. Besides, I think it hints the plot of the next game if it is a sequel.
LightStreak567 No worries. I like constructive debate when it comes to this and that is rare, lol. When I really think about it, the Catalyst saved the galaxy from the Leviathan. At least temporarily. But while its "solution" is holding the galaxy over from that, I don't think it's the answer to the organic life creating synthetic life that surpasses it problem. And realistically, there may not actually be one. In the end it really comes down to the Crucible. If we knew where that truly originated from, there would likely only be one real choice at the end. For all we know it could have originated with the Leviathan themselves(they do act odd when asked about it after all) and they could be hoping that someone would use it to "synthesize" the galaxy into a form of life that they can control. Which I think is what you were originally getting at. On the other side of things, if it really does originate with some random species from long ago then perhaps the newly synthesized galaxy can't be controlled by the Leviathan. Who knows. It raises interesting theories and questions though. Personally I prefer the latter as I think it makes for a better story. I just think that makes Shepard's death more heroic because I think it takes courage to attempt that change for the galaxy while also sacrificing ones self to do so. But that's just me.
edgecrusherhalo You're right. Looking on the bright side of things, if it weren't for the conflict between sentient machines and organics, Protheans, Humans, Asari, Turians, Batarians, Salarians, Quarians and other races would have evolved in a galaxy under Leviathan rule and become one of their many tools. I have an interesting idea of the origins of the Crucible, but I feel afraid to explain my opinion about who may have designed it, but I will say that I am concerned that even though the Leviathans have lived in the galaxy long enough to see who the designers of the Crucible are, watching the activities of every civilization with their crystal ball devices, and the activities of the Reapers when they are harvesting everyone, they didn't want to explain much about the Crucible to Shepard, only the fact that they've watched its construction many times, and that what it does is a complete mystery, even to them. When the camera zooms in on Leviathan's shifting eyes after Shepard asks him about the Crucible, I get the feeling that is a sign that Leviathan knows more than he wants to admit to Shepard. Plus, I find it foolish, even for The Catalyst (who the Leviathans call "The Intelligence") to not stop the development of the Crucible as soon as he became aware of its existence several cycles ago, believing that over time the concept of its purpose had been eradicated. It's unbelievable to me that he completely underestimated the resourcefulness of organics that easily, especially when their technology is based on the technology the Reapers used to build the mass relays and Citadel, so that they can evolve down the path the Catalyst and Reapers desire. About Synthesis, if it is a natural phenomena, I also can't help wondering why the bodies of the Leviathans show no signs that they reached Sytnhesis since they claim to be the galaxy's first and only apex race. Well, Shepard generally is a courageous person, staying strong physically and emotionally, but the nightmares Shepard has in ME3 which represents his/her knowledge that not everyone can or will be saved in the Reaper war no matter how hard he/she tries tells me that at some point he/she might forget that sometimes the right choice is defeating the enemy at the price of sacrificing the lives of some of his/her allies, friends or maybe even himself/herself or all the above. That's what makes wars a terrible thing. It goes to show how human Shepard is, he/she is not a knight in shining armor, he/she is an average human like all of us, vulnerable to doubts and fears.
amen... the ending wasn't ideal, but it didn't even ruin ME3, much less the entire franchise... basically impossible for any 10 minute segment of a game to "ruin" the entire thing, regardless of how bad it was- and after the Extended Cut, the ME3 ending wasn't much worse than most video game endings, or even SCI-FI movie endings for that matter (plotholes, even gaping ones, are basically par for the course I'm afraid)
Honestly Leviathan saved the ending more than the extended cut did. I wish that bioware pursued the dark matter plotline that was abandoned after that writer was transfered to the Austin branch, but the ending was... Okay. I am still convinced to this day if they made the indoctrination theory canon and tied it with some elaboration on the dark matter, Mass Effect would have been video game's landmark story. It's a great game as is, but... it's missing something, and that's what caused such a violent reaction. For once in a long time, a lot of us were invested for a grand finale that would tie it all together. It didn't really turn out that way. And that's a damn shame.
Mass Effect 3 was the first Mass Effect game I ever got. I was well aware of the series, I knew enough of the previous games to know everything I needed and more. When I started the game, Vancouver (In Canada) Falls to the Reapers, along with Earth. As I watched that boy blow in in the Kodiak Shuttle, something inside of me clicked. I played the game, loved all of it, and then came the ending. I was aware of the ending's rep, so I braced myself for the worst. When this song played...
@lukesps77 The dialogue is right there. The Catalyst thought its solution would work again, but Shepard being there proved it wrong. Also it also said that The Crucible changed The Catalyst's nature and offered new possibilities.
Catalyst wasn't omnipotent, it shouldn't be believed that same thing would happen again if we destroyed reapers, the fact that Quarian - Geth peace is possible proves that synthetics and organics can get along quite well.
@Arcian Shepard is the first to succeed in uniting all species, the first to give Reapers so much difficulties, the first to make their plans fail, the first to encounter the Catalyst, the first to go this far... He could be the first to break free of the endoctrination.
@Arcian Yup, Destroy is the ultimate Renegade ending. Using Anderson as it's avatar is a surprisingly good deception. You destroy the reapers, but you damn your synthetic allies and friend, destroy the relays and quite possibly cause the citadel the spiral out of control and crash into earth - that thing is bigger than the rock that killed dinosaurs. You selfishly got your way but at a terrible cost. It is a VICTORY AT ALL COST SCENARIO - PURE Renegade in its essence
@Duddle17 What you fail to realize is that in Control, Shep doesn't become part of the system, HE BECOMES THE SYSTEM, he replaces the spacekid, becoming the new Catalyst. If anything, it's Shep who could do the indoctrinating through his Reaper proxies.
I still feel like the Synthesis ending was the most paragon choice out of all them. I mean, still retaining the syntethics' free will while ending the reaper threat seems like the way to go.
i always kind of figured that sovereign said what he said because at that time, no one had reached the catalyst and it was assumed that no one would ever would. i mean the catalyst itself even acts as though this was a surprise and admits that its solution wont work anymore because of shepard getting that far. or because to a synthetic what they are doing is preserving life, but obviously to an organic that would not be considered preserving so thats why its "beyond our comprehension."
Rewrite the ending, replace Starchild with a hologram of Leviathan (with the same VO as Leviathan), mix this theme with Leviathan's theme, get rid of Synthesis ending, allow for Geth, EDI, and the Mass Relays to survive the Destroy ending if you bring the maximum number of War Assets to the final battle (100% Galactic Readiness), add new option to convince the Catalyst to self-terminate and shut down the Reapers using the Crucible through persuasion in dialogue; options would be available if you have a perfect playthrough (Wrex and Eve alive, Genophage cured, peace between Geth and Quarians, convinced Saren and Illusive Man to commit suicide, destroyed Collector Base), and have the Normandy rescue Shepard at the end like in the perfect ending mods on PC...
When this song came on and shepard was being lifted up, that single moment brought back the entire feeling I had in ME1. It had that cold, aquatic, mysterious and adventurous feel to it like im about to discover something amazing on the other side of this veil. I was staring pretty intently into my tv screen. Until the end credits rolled. Then sadness flowed in, then confusion, then disappointment. Never anger though, as much as I wanted to be. Can't deny the amazing ride up to that point.
I remember that week I was playing through Mass Effect 3. I was standing in where the Citadel and the Crucible connects, listening to this dreamy music and feeling special I've never felt before whilst playing a video game. I spent the day after thinking about the end and my choice. I didn't want to load and make it again or different. It was special, it was a one time choice. Then I started reading about the flaws, also realized some myself. Still, that moment...
They have to be vastly faster than that. 12 LY/Day equals 4380 x C (C=light speed). From entering the Bahak System at the end of Arrival, the Reapers take 2 months to wipe out the entire Batarian Hegemony as well as traversing the 15000-20000 light years from batarian space to Earth (the Charon Relay allegedly being the closest relay after the Alpha Relay). For that to happen, they have to travel like 330 light years per day, which equals to circa 120,000 x C. BioWare's math sucks.
i think synthesis goes along with it more than people give credit for. the entire game was shepard trying to unite everyone kicking and screaming despite the fact that galactic extinction was on their doorstep. what better way to get people united than to give them common ground. its naive to assume that without changing the way things are that this same conflict wont arise again. synthesis only changes what life is made of, NOT its individuality which lives in the mind, not the DNA.
Yes, that is why I used the word "allegedly". 30 LY/day is still like 285% faster than Alliance/Citadel ships, so it is by no means slow. Just, if the implication from Arrival is to be taken seriously, there's apparently a gigantic gap between the Bahak System and Earth where no relays exist. If the Reapers had to traverse that gigantic gap in 2 months, they would have to travel at ~330 LY/day, and their speed would have to exceed Alliance/Citadel ships by 2700%.
its the planet klencory. based on what leviathan said about how the catalyst had placed pawns in the galaxy ready for the take over when it chose to betray them, id guess that those pawns were also synthetic intelligences and that thats what that volus somehow came across.
"Vigil" of ME3. Although the Vigil impression was still better. I don't know. It was so simple in what that moment was... but somehow that humble 8 minute conversation with that yellow ball of light was one of the most magical moments of videogaming fI ever had...
I have a feeling he oversaw more than just two songs, and probably gave the stamp of approval on most of them. Officially credited doesn't always represent all the work put forth in a project...
@Arcian There really needs to be a word in between damaged and scrwed into little bits. Sure, there may be more of the relays remaining, but they are almost certainly non functional, which on the end means the same thing. And even if their scructures are intact enough to work, their energy is depleted, used up in the blast. So once again, same scenario.
i dont care if you dont like the ending, when shepard tried to reach the console and fell down like he may have passed out or died... that was the longest 3 seconds ever. then when the elevator started going up and this music started playing... it was one of the most suspenseful moments i have had in my gaming history. i had no idea what was coming and i was on the edge of my seat.
yes me too. I think they gave us a pretty good closure to the story. I didn't mind, that still no clue about Shepard, but everything else was answered pretty good I think. Bioware, you just saved yourselves from the annihilation. You gained my heart back. Now please, don't make me live this nightmare again with Dragon Age III. Thank you.
I listen to this whenever I have to try and come up with a "solution" to something, I make sure they don't involve destruction, controlling or synthesis...
@lukesps77 THe ending wasn't about needing a happy one (though a choice for one would be consistent with the choice aspect featured in the games), it was about massive inconsitencies, plotholes, and no sense of closure for anybody besdies possibly Shepard.
I second this. Remember that this happened on the same way on the Halo Franchise. Since they introduced you to the Ark, and the part humans had to assume on the history from the very beginning. Mass Effect followed a similar path, but in the wrong way, by making up contradictions to their on facts. Thats not a twist, its, in fact, having tons of ideas and having the urge to implement them in your history by distorting the whole plot if necessary.
Remember in the ME universe, synthetics can over time become as advanced(or more so) than the Reapers themselves, i don't see any problem there that synthetics shouldn't eventually be able to kill all organic life in the galaxy.
