Welcome back to the Kotaku Game Club's discussion of Mass Effect 3. We're finally here. Today we'll be talking about the game's last missions and its oft-maligned ending. Whether you loved or hated it, everybody seems to have their own idea of what should've happened at the end of this game.
As with all of our campaign discussions, this meeting will be crammed with spoilers. If you haven't seen the ending on your own yet, you might not want to wouldn't scroll down.
Joining the Game Club for the first time? Here's the deal: The Kotaku Game Club exists because no one wants to experience a game alone. Even if we're playing individually, it's always more interesting to share our thoughts and hear other peoples' perspectives. The Game Club picks a different game every month to play as a group so we can meet to discuss its narrative and mechanical themes and reactions to them.
We meet on Kotaku every Thursday at 4pm Eastern, and our discussions take place in the comments section of designated Game Club posts like this one.
By now, the salient details of Mass Effect 3's ending have been discussed to death. So rather than hashing whether or not the ending was good or bad, I have a couple of questions for you about the larger implications that have been brought forth by ending and the controversy surrounding it.
1) Are a "good ending" and a "satisfying ending" the same thing?
2) Do you think the final choice encapsulates the greater themes of the Mass Effect series as a whole?
When I announced that the Game Club would be looking at Mass Effect 3, I said that we wanted to take on an epic game. Needless to say, I think we hit the nail on the head. The last 15-20 minutes of this game raise more questions about Video Game narrative than many games ever do.
The final decision Shepard is forced to make isn't the one most of us expected. It doesn't break things down into paragon and renegade options, and doesn't necessarily let players feel the way they might have wanted to. It is however, and I know I'm skating on thin ice here, evocative. There was no indication of which decision was the best and, as a result, we were forced to think about it.
What did you think about when decided the fate of the galaxy? More importantly, did thinking about it change the way you felt about everything you'd done before?
This will be our last discussion of the Mass Effect 3 campaign, our final discussion will cover the game's new multiplayer offerings. We'll meet back on Kotaku next Thursday, March 29th, at 4pm Eastern.
Image Credit: Hellstern at DeviantArt.