I find it quite impossible to consider Mass Effect 3's endings in any context other than the endings of
the Deus Ex games. The parallels are
striking. A set of branching, oft
concealed choices are set within a complicated web of systems we refer to as
"game," left for us to discover and explore of our own accord, at our
own pace. These choices color our path
as we move through the linear story we are presented with, setting us up for
the final moments which lead to an inevitable conclusion, one demanding
sacrifice. The first two Mass Effect games used these complicated
interlocking systems to generate singular cinematic endings based on the
decisions you made during the course of play.
The "color" of the path grew into the finale. The third Mass
Effect game takes a different approach: it presents a last-minute branching
choice that, while influenced by the choices you've made, effectively pushes
them to the background in favor of attempting to generate some sort of
catharsis for the three game act you've played through.
It's an understandable compulsion to have as a designer: you
spend all this time working on a game, a series of games, really, spanning half
a decade, and when you're finally done you're left with a big messy product
that you have to figure out how to tie up.
The inspiration for Mass Effect 3's
endings, the Dues Ex games, dealt
with incredibly complicated stories that juggled conspiracy theories and moral
dilemmas that necessitated a similar solution, and presented a similar network
of branching decisions along the way, long before it was cool. Seemingly plot central characters could be
killed without breaking the game, bosses could be circumvented without being
killed, and when you did these unexpected things, the story would account for
it. Someone you spared in Germany would
thank you in France, someone you killed would have a friend looking for revenge
a few missions later. It wasn't a
perfect system, but it was, in many ways, a majestic iteration on what it meant
to be a game.
But the complicated story and interlocking moralities tied
to specific events needed a resolution, a catharsis for that set of moral
quandaries you've guided the player through.
And that catharsis needed to be in some way reliable and manageable for
the designers, so last-minute choices were added to the mix. A set of broad, world shattering decisions
made in the final minutes of the last few levels determined how the game would
resolve, factoring in more than nearly all of the other choices that one might
make.
The end result is bittersweet: you have a set of endings,
easily accessed by simply replaying a save from the last few minutes of the
game, tying up a tremendously complicated set of game systems that shift in
nuanced ways based on play. The motive
for replaying the game then becomes less seeing new endings, and more seeing
the way the decisions you make subtly impact gameplay systems along the way. You can easily access the endings, simply by
stepping into your last minute save file and playing through from there. This is what Mass Effect 3 presented me with, and I found it no more satisfying
than I found the Deus Ex
endings. These forced dichotomies
present an illusion of choice, but within their frameworks choice is actually
annihilated: the choices you make are made less meaningful, and the last few
moments of the game present you with what is effectively a reset button. Flip one of these three switches and you get
a particular ending.
This is, in many ways, a false parallel. Mass
Effect 3's ending has some pretty insane multivariable code behind it that
shifts in small ways based on the decisions you've made, and, if you do certain
things along the way the same choices in ME3
can have dramatically different impacts on the way the story resolves. The "Effective Military Strength"
bar that keeps going up and down in ME3
is at the heart of these shifts, but other, subtler shifts occur based on
experiences in previous games and choices made in ME3 itself. Some of these
are obvious, some aren't. Some require
DLC, some don't. Deus Ex's endings had none of this granularity: they effectively
undid all of the choices you made in the game world in favor of locking you
into a set of crafted resolvey moments. Mass Effect 3, to its credit, endeavors
to make every choice you've made along the way important, however ridiculous
they might seem along the way.
But I do feel that the endings, and this method of
introducing an ending to the game, has the strange feeling of annihilating
choice. By making each ending about a
binary set of decisions made at the last moment, you effectively undermine the
importance of the decisions that lead up to these final seconds of game
tie. By presenting a set of binary
choices, you necessitate pushing all of the past choices you've made into the
background, necessarily foregrounding the big decision that will change everything
in the game world in a few seconds of codified resolution. Consider Mass
Effect 3's ending in the context of Fallout:
New Vegas' ending. Fallout: New Vegas has a greater variety
of endings, and the choices within it are far more binary, but the game
presents these decisions in such a way that seem fluid, part of a
narrative. Without achievements, there's
a chance you wouldn't notice the various decisions that influence the ending of
New Vegas, however slim, and
acquiring a certain ending is actually quite challenging: it's less a matter of
rebooting to a particular point, and more a matter of playing through hours of
game in a new way to see how it all unfolds.
The difference between the two systems is stark. One presents a game-world where events unfold
based on choice, a game world where this is always the case, where decisions
consistently rework the world around you and the resolution is generated by
many small moments, rather than a handful of big ones. The other presents an immersive world, up to
a point, before asking players to make a massive, largely decontexualized
decision at the end of the game which effectively re-writes the story of the
game world in its final moments to give players an appropriately epic narrative
resolution. But there's something in
that blanket resolution I find profoundly unsatisfying, a feeling of finality
and disconnection that irks me to no end.
Perhaps it's the way it casts choices up to that point as
being less important (even when they were just as important). Perhaps it's the finality implied by such a
set of choices (though this too is eschewed by a tendency to make sequels to
games with endings that present the option of a sequel as far-fetched). Whatever the guiding star behind the tiny
nagging voice within my skull, I find this sort of thing unpleasant. Instead of giving me catharsis about how I've
played the game, it wracks me with anxiety.
What if I chose A instead of B?
Or what if I went out on a limb with C?
Would my character ever even consider choosing C? What about D?
D could be interesting. These
choices, rather than unfolding the world, annihilate additional possibilities
in my mind, despite the fact that they are simply a reloaded save file away.
I've talked about Mass Effect 3's ending with relatively
little substance, and few, if any spoilers, I hope, and the result is pretty
dry. But what I really want to ask you
to consider isn't whether or not it worked as an ending, but what sets
branching endings aside from last-minute choice endings. I've got much, much bigger problems with ME3 that I plan to address next week
(even at its worst, the Mass Effect
series is lovely fuel for discussion) but for now I simply wanted to address a
massive, sweeping, singular set of choices that, for the first time in the Mass Effect series, presented
themselves. I understand why the ending
was structured this way. I even think
that, considering the circumstances responsible for the ending, Bioware did
pretty well (though it is worth noting that I played through the "Extended
Cut," by merit of playing ME3
over a year after its original release).
But it raised my hackles all the same, the way that Deus Ex: Human Revolution's final moments did, wherein I was asked
which button I'd like to push to change the world.
A twitching eye, a reflexively snarling lip, a sudden urge
to let loose an animal growl from my throat.
This is what these sorts of moments do to me. And me alone, apparently, judging by review
scores. Perhaps I am unfair. I'm sure many could say the same about how
I've used parentheses in this post.
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