Mass Effect 3: Original Endings Side-by-side

I too was disappointed with the Mass Effect 3 endings... bummer to end off on a sour note in an otherwise spectacular series.
The worst part isn't the whole ridiculousness of the Robinson Crusoe-style epitaph for your friends, or the general non-sensicalness of the fate of the galaxy.
The worst part is that none of your actions mattered... not even your final one.
Oh well, I quite enjoyed the rest of it, so I'll go with the "dark energy" meme that's buzzing about the 'net as the real ending.

[@HuskyRa1n]

Child: Tell me another story about the shepard! Old Man: Did you buy the DLC? Child: no... Old Man: Then no, got to bed.

[@sticklyboi]

GOTTA BED

[@ODSTWhiteout]

Or wait 9 years to play it the right way lol

[@KIooS01]

At least the colors are different

[@andreyana8656]

+Random Gamer lmfao

[@kewl1234]

balazs909 LOL YEAH

[@falconius27]

you win

[@deptusmechanikus7362]

because *_CHOISES CLEARLY MATTER_* in this game

[@Sckarton]

unless you are color blind

[@spartan1010101]

You know what sucks? In the merge ending Joker is merged with cybernetics and shit but he still limps cuz he still got that bone disease.

[@macmundie]

Maybe now all he needs is a software update?

[@chthulu27]

Yeah, gotta say, the ending to 3 really broke my heart. I took an entire week off work just to play it the first week it came out and I cleared the entire game in one week. By the time I got to the end, I was legitimately depressed. What a fucking letdown.

[@spartan1010101]

@@chthulu27 The only thing that gave me hope was the max difficulty destroy ending easter egg and that was like a drop of water for a person dying of thirst.

[@chthulu27]

@@spartan1010101 , yeah, I saw it. But i was just too discouraged by the pre-patch ending to play more than once. I loved ME2 so much! Epic final boss, great characters and I actually enjoyed the reload system.

[@Thymus]

@@chthulu27 Let down? It was perfect. Some of you whiny bitches wanted a sunshine and rainbows ending. Fighting a race of civilization enders should never have never ended any way but hard.

[@blueshit199]

Ah yes, the "endings". I've dismissed that claim.

[@JXZX1]

It's funny because your avatar comes from a game that did Red, Blue, and Green ending choices much, much better. In 2000.

[@Aussieduderivs1]

We meet again, Good sir.

[@user-qp5yu1zq1m]

JXZX1 What's​ the game

[@FlakkerDPS]

@@user-qp5yu1zq1m deus ex

[@yvetteszentesi6077]

"I've tried so hard .. and got so far .. in the end .. it doesn't even matter". Linkin Park was morbidly correct.

[@aw2584]

And we all know what happened to Chester after he played ME3 and saw the endings... Naah just kidding. He killed hisself in 2017 and ME3 came out in 2012. He actually killed himself after playing ME: Andromeda, which did come out in 2017. Can't blaim him.

[@Thymus]

That'd exactly how it should have gone. Any victory should have been as much a loss. We were fighting a race that had been destroying all civilization for millions of years.

[@DotsOnALine]

The most important question when choosing the ending for Mass Effect 3.. WHAT IS YOU FAVORITE COLOR!!!?!?!?!

[@rkstevenson5448]

"Blue. No!---aaaiiiiiiiiiii!!!"

[@abohsukampret]

Me: **thinks hard on my favorite color** Catalyst: "SO BE IT." Me: "Wait, what?"

[@joelalejandrogil5771]

My fav color in cyan .-.

[@OsamaBinLooney]

WHAT is your name? Commander Shephard WHAT is your quest? To save the galaxy WHAT is your favorite color?

[@possiblycrazy442]

"Okay. One moorre story." *_[BAM!] MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA!_*

[@YobyDrenKlownLOE]

One more story i felt was suppose to be the outcome of the reaper war for mass effect 4

[@shadowfox8748]

He asked for one more shepherd story...and he said one more : P

[@NucleaRaptor]

NO GRANDDAD NO

[@DrWatson4]

Fear not for Mass effect 4 is confirmed and he lives

[@lep2525]

The kid after hearing the Andromeda story: wtf was that shit?

[@ThePartyPrimate]

The best and most badass and epic boss battle ever! Marauder shields! In ME2 we had a huge human-reaper thing, and now, a marauder and two husks that die with three pistol shots! Isn't it so awesome you want to cut off your balls and scream like a madman to add to the awesomeness, epicness and badassery?

[@47shadows76]

+EmotionGamer Umm....Kai Leng? Not Epic enough for You?

[@ThePartyPrimate]

But the Marauder shields are more epic.

[@sebo641]

+EmotionGamer Nowadays, video games think having a final boss battle is too video-gamey

[@looinrims]

Christopher Dews "I NEED TO RECHARGE!" Destroyed it for me Especially the shit screenwriting, Shepard and company would've bent over Kai Leng three ways from Sunday But no he must have magical force powers that stop bullets whilst somehow just autisming

[@tiredtypes1260]

Kai Leng’s boss fight was laughably easy, even in Hardcore difficulty. The dude just spawns some low class enemies that you can instruct your squadmates to kill while you focus on Leng himself and just continually attack him.

[@Nekryptik]

I love the bit when they do fuck all but change the colour, it really adds to the whole "actions have consequences" feeling. best ending in my onion.

[@DrWatson4]

Strangely I actually prefer this to what i thought was the ending cause i couldve sworn the endings were kill the reapers and everything else in the universe kill the reapers but also all your friends and just kill the reapers but it requires mass amounts of reputation and correct choices and everything must be perfected in a certain way just to get the good ending.

[@gollumhunter8741]

I love it how the last scene shows that everything you did was just told by an old man and could be made up.

[@CatAtomic99]

Still amazed at how lazy they were with this ending. Even if you wanted to go with three basic overall choices, they shouldn't have used the exact same shot progression, and they should have shuffled in different variations of outcomes on subplots that were basically just left dangling.

[@gothpunkboy89]

Nah was a find ending

[@johnschnow3306]

+gothpunkboy89 yeah, I quite liked the ending, though I played 3 first then went to 2 and I'm gonna try to do 1.

[@justyoupt9723]

1,2 AND 3 bests games ever ( You can download betther grafics Hd mod to Mass effect 1)

[@SPACEHARICE]

i think its because the real original ending was leaked so a month before the game was released this was thrown together

[@vicariousfan]

umm they did show the different vatiations and outcomes of subplots. This isn't the full ending.

[@TeryonTheHuman]

I had to see this for myself because for years I thought people were just throwing tantrums. Turns out it actually WAS that bad. Sheesh

[@labradude]

You had to see an outdated ending to a game you have no context for nearly a decade after it was fixed?

[@TeryonTheHuman]

@@labradude what you just asked me in attempt to be clever was a dumb question. The ending has been fixed for a long time. The DLC to fix it was not only free 10 years ago but is installed by default in the modern remaster. Chances are most playing mass effect now who didn’t play the original day 1 version won’t have seen the original endings and will just have to look them up for comparison correct? Correct.

[@Numenorean921]

@@TeryonTheHuman lol labradude wrecked

[@fatbuffalo]

oh god, is this the legendary "multiple endings" that they promised ?

[@michaelburke7978]

"[The presence of the Rachni] has huge consequences in Mass Effect 3. Even just in the final battle with the Reapers." "You'll get answers to everything. That was one of the key things. Regardless of how we did everything, we had to say, yes, we're going to provide some answers to these people." "Fans want to make sure that they see things resolved, they want to get some closure, a great ending. I think they're going to get that."

[@yo10057]

>closure

[@jackiemortes]

Ah, those pre-release promises. After all this time I still remember that shitshow after release. Atleast we got Extended Cut

[@Sovereign754]

🎶Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies🎶

[@themanwhosoldyou9545]

Tell you lies I tell you wicked lies Tell you lies Tell you wicked lies

[@arbiterskiss6692]

The Extended Cut reinforced what the fans were saying: Our choices didn't matter in the end. Where's the option to tell Starchild organic and synths don't have to destroy each other(Joker/EDI geth/quarian) and he accepts that? Where's my option to punish the asari for hiding a beacon that could have saved everyone thousands of years ago? Why can't I blow up the Relay and Reapers, killing everyone? My choices didn't matter, and EA makes sure I know that.

[@Platypi33]

to their credit, I saw at least 3 different scenes where people looked in the opposite direction than the others. Really diverse and interesting ending.

[@windwind3170]

Okey i can understand Control and Destroy endings they seem to be atleast somewhat logical but HOW DO YOU FUCKING CHANGE DNA OF EVERY SINGLE ONE ORGANIC BEING IN THE GALAXY AND MAKE SYNTHETICS "ALIVE"?!!!

[@gregorkovacic9806]

Imagine that shock wave sen't instructions to every living dna to produce and replicate small nanites :) Edit: Same for machines, it sen't them instructions to make certain neuron connections and made them think like living things in artificial bodies. You do know that our thoughts are just a bunch of chemistry with complicated neuron connections - it can be replicated.

[@windwind3170]

Gregor Kovačič you can't program life, dude

[@gregorkovacic9806]

another easy example would be viruses. They attack your cells, change your dna (programm it) to produce more viruses - an actual alien object inside your body. We can program viruses too, and plant then inside us to do what we wanted.

[@windwind3170]

Gregor Kovačič nah it's just bullshit that Bioware come up with because they needed some ultra paragon 100% every one is happy ending

[@gregorkovacic9806]

well, I didn't say I'm totally satisfied with endings, but it has some degree of scientific background

[@Bthakilla4rilla]

The biggest problem people had with the original endings I think is just a general lack of closure, which is something I agree with. I can accept that given the circumstances of the reaper war, the endings would be mostly similar because they do, and logically should, all revolve around using the crucible. It makes sense. There just isn't enough there and there is almost zero closere to anything that actually happened in the game as previously mentioned excluding the reapers on earth.

[@nothanks5220]

Who knows, maybe eventually we'll get a new Mass Effect set 100+ years ahead of 3 & the developers will finally give us the closure on how everything came to pass.

[@TehIdiotOne]

@@nothanks5220 I mean the Extended Cut more or less did a fine job providing that closure for the endings. I can understand why the original endings were confusing as fuck though, since they did fuck all to explain what it actually entailed afterwards.

[@artman40]

The mostly similar endings, however, is exactly the opposite what Bioware promised.

[@TheArtofUTube]

Don't blame Bioware. Blame EA for making their artist rush the game out.

[@justaguy1253]

nope it was bioware they already had a different ending planned and it got leaked instead of realeasing that ending they changed it to this peace of shit so wierdly it wasnt ea fault this time

[@TheArtofUTube]

I don't believe you.

[@justaguy1253]

then dont even though in the guide book it shows that ending

[@TheArtofUTube]

Justaguy1253- Pretty bad gaming videos :D "then dont even though in the guide book it shows that ending" Having trouble understanding this statement from you.

[@justaguy1253]

sorry i meant it is mentioned in the guidebook about this last boss which never happened

[@MisterMadnessx]

Omg I've never seen this without the extended cut. This is horrible lol

[@Anonymous551656]

Imagine playing the game blind, finishing a couple of days after release without spoiling yourself, and _this_ is the climax you end up with. No epilogues, nothing, just this disjointed mess. When I played and finished the game, I was convinced I must have hit a game-breaking bug and somehow skipped the actual ending. I loaded my game, picked another option, and saw pretty much an identical cinematic so I was certain my game was bugged and skipping the entire ending sequence for some reason. So I went to google to try and figure out how to fix the bug so I could get the actual ending. Then to my dawning horror I discovered that there was no bug, and that this was the actual "ending" BioWare had released the game with. The crushing despair and sense of betrayal still haunts me to this day.

[@Anonymous551656]

​@Beese Churger ​ @Beese Churger I never played it with the extended cut. I will never play this game again. However I have seen the Extended Cut videos on KZbin. Technically the flavour text epilogues are better than no epilogue, but it doesn't mean anything because the flaws with the ending are fundamental. The fact that they try to fix plotholes by using other plotholes is kind of funny (ground crew teleport to the Normandy? Nah, Harbinger just lets the Normandy fly down and hover right in front of him so Shepard can go out of character and send his entire ground crew away for no reason). The EC does nothing to address the fundamental flaws with the ending. For starters the Catalyst is a complete deus ex machina asspull that makes no sense and makes claims that are demonstrably _wrong_ - but Shephard just goes along with its bullshit. Most egregiously however is that at the end of a trilogy which was all about the choices you made - that's why from the very first game they advertised the fact that your choices could be imported from one game to the next - _nothing_ you did affected how the game ends. Red, blue, , green or the "fuck you" ending added in the EC as a final middle finger to the community who wanted more choice. Pick one. No choice you made ever mattered. Whether you were Paragon, Renegade, or somewhere in the middle never mattered. An arbitrary "war asset" number decided which colour endings you got to choose from, but doesn't actually change the story in any way. The Extended Cut didn't fix anything. The ending is a turd, and all the EC did was add a thin coat of silver paint to make it look superficially better to the casual observer. It doesn't change the fact that the ending is an insulting mess of human excrement.

[@Anonymous551656]

​@Beese Churger I've had a browse of the mods you listed. Good on the fan community for making what looks like some really good efforts which improve the game immensely. Unfortunately I don't think it's enough. At the end of the day, it's still the case that nothing you did really mattered. I might feel up to going back to the original Mass Effect one day if I've got nothing better to do. Who knows, maybe I will even enjoy ME2 enough to give ME3 another shot. I doubt it will be any time soon though. The scars of betrayal for the blatant lies and incompetence of BioWare's corporate officers and project leaders still cut deep. Even after 8 years my disgust has barely faded. As for EA forcing BioWare to finish the game within 2 years, there is a situation that we can directly compare this to. Let's compare this to Knights of the Old Republic II. The ending of that game was an absolutely atrocious, nonsensical mess of disjointed scenes. But in that case I don't blame the producers. Here's the difference: - The KotOR2 developers, Obsidian, acknowledged the ending was broken. - They apologised that they ran out of time to finish the game properly. - They offered to keep working to fix the ending and restore all the content they hadn't managed to finish. (Unfortunately LucasArts refused to allow it.) - Obsidian made it clear that the ending that was initially shipped up with was *not* intended to be the actual ending. - The devs intentionally included all the unfinished content on the game disc so that it could be finished and restored with a patch. Compare to BioWare: - No acknowledgement that the ending was fundamentally flawed. - No apology, just an attempt to claim "artistic integrity". - No offer to fix the ending itself, just provide "additional clarity and closure". - The ending that was shipped with the game was the ending that Casey Hudson and Mac Walters *intended* it to be. (Against the better judgement of the rest of the writing/dev team.) - No attempt to restore cut content to the game to give customers an actual finished product; just sell it as DLC. - In the very _days_ before release the project leads blatantly *lied* about the ending. They promised that choices would matter, that nobody would get the same identical ending as somebody else. I believe it was Casey Hudson who said outright there wasn't going to be an "A, B, or C" ending choice. BioWare's betrayal of the fanbase - paying customers who had supported them for years - was absolute. It's very hard for me to get over that and go back to product which caused so much pain.

[@saquist]

@@Anonymous551656 The Ending is bad with or without the Extended Cut. Sliding pictures and voice over isn't a significant improvement. I remember all the theories about this game.

[@Anonymous551656]

@@saquist I remember the first few weeks. Many of us literally couldn't comprehend how a studio of BioWare's pedigree could _possibly_ have screwed up so badly. At one point I was so desperate to rationalise that I entertained the idea that maybe Indoctrination Theory was the intended ending, and BioWare's master plan was to blow away the community when they unlocked the _real_ ending and revealed the truth. The ludicrous idea that a major studio would release a AAA game without the actual ending seemed more believable than coming to terms with the concept that BioWare was even capable of a failure of that magnitude. But alas.

[@soundofnellody262]

Well, Mass Effect Trilogy is a game that reminded me that the journey matters, but not the goal. Sad but true.

[@RaxuRangerkingsChannel]

Which Prothean genius said ''Hey guys; y'know that weapon which is supposed to save all of us? We should really make it destroy all the Mass Relays too!''?

[@DolusVulpes]

RaxuRangerking Protheans didn't make it, Leviathans/Reapers did.

[@LiquidfirePUA]

The Crucible is a culminiation of many cycles to stop the Reapers. The Protheans where just the last ones working on it.

[@stormshadow7116]

@@DolusVulpes Not the Leviathans and Reapers. It was only thought of several cycles ago apparently according to the "Catalyst." And no, the Protheans had about the same amount of information our character's cycle did about what it would do.

[@DolusVulpes]

@@stormshadow7116 I made that comment 2 years ago.

[@davidstinger1134]

Well, it's pretty much about overloading, "infecting" the energy of the relay and using them to spread the energy. Not ideal, but it did kill them.

[@Brunni7794]

That music when they step out of the ship has brought back a flood of terrible memories. I remember sitting there after playing through 3 games to end on that. Horrific. Only the GoT ending is worse.

[@rickrand8041]

I had a friend just pick these games up after the announcement for the new one. He had played Andromeda but never any of the original trilogy. He caught up with me partway through one and asked me about the series. I said "The games themselves are great, but its a lot like GoT. They just couldn't pull off an ending. The good news is though, unlike game of thrones that sucked for the last 2-3 seasons, Mass Effect is good right up to the last 10 minutes or so." I'm looking forward to showing him through the Indoctrination Theory after he finishes 3, which as far as I 'm concerned is the cannon ending. I"m really hoping the new game picks up after the Destroy Ending where Shepherd takes a breath and is still alive.

[@labradude]

@@rickrand8041 Lmao. The devs have said the indoctrination conspiracy fanfic is not true (and it's also patently false according to in-game lore).

[@rickrand8041]

@@labradude cool story bro.

[@HowlingWolf518]

IMO getting over _this_ ending helps you make it through Thrones. Seen one devastatingly stupid finale, seen 'em all.

[@Sotka_ot_grudi]

Find the difference!

[@rythmjc3]

Blue Green Red :D

[@jacetheboogeyman3797]

EDI

[@andrewglendinning2074]

I cry every time

[@nomoredruggs]

Omg what were they thinking! This still baffles me after all these years. 😐 Original endings were a traumatic experience... Thank god for the extended ending and ending mods!

[@19EJ91]

There is a 4th ending btw, if you shoot the IA the cycles continue, and the ending it's basically Liara's message to future civilizations.

[@Horacio_Poggi]

That was the better ending in my opinion.

[@19EJ91]

I discovered it by accident, because I didn't like the current options (they simply don't make sense) I shoot at him and he was like "so be it" and everyone died

[@Horacio_Poggi]

Well, I choose the Destroy ending because I wanted the Reapers gone, no matter what, but that 4th ending makes the most sense, give a message to future generations so they can prepare themselves better against the Reapers, of all the options is the one that does make sense, why would you trust anything the child says.

[@catiseith]

Ernesto Nunez Only with the extended ending DLC. The original one doesn't have it (I tried it).

[@parijatbanik6077]

yes at first attempt I made it. The Liara's message was in a underground bunker

[@greghannibal]

I remember being nearly in tears as this ending progressed. The music was peaceful and soft but oh so haunting. When I realized that Bioware had just given us the finger, I really did cry...

[@SephirothsStudent]

I need to call my Optometrist; I'm seeing triple.

[@commandershepard5305]

I'm Commander Shepard and this is my biggest disappointment on the Citadel

[@minecraftlover909]

YAY!!!!!! Pretty colors :)

[@AtomicTurtie]

Last two words seen in the game: "DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT" Sounds like EA GAME$ alright.

[@crayjonz2555]

My first play through I somehow managed to kill every one, when the Normandy hatch starts to crack open it stops and no one come out!

[@MrJohnnyBQuick]

I like how we were promised sixteen endings but instead got like one and a half.

[@MissyAriadne]

Out of all those gaming rages. And all those late nights. This was the most depressing milestone of my gaming career

[@tomicide20]

thanks for the video. its about time someone put this up.

[@Databoi7]

Ahem......Prothy the Prothean......

[@SuperSaiyan3985]

Wow, I can only imagine the outrage back then with these being the original endings 😂

[@Bafio24]

The 1st time I thought "WTF is this sht!!!" and noww... well it's pretty much the same xD

[@TheBurgess57]

You sir have made my day.

[@intergalactic92]

I will say this, hearing that music again made me feel really nostalgic.

[@ArvelDreth]

the best part about the ending is that it decides whether Shepard himself lives or dies. and only in one choice does he live. the one that Shepard, paragon or renegade, would of made all along.

[@evagreta7832]

I was soo disappointed, and still are -_-

[@gornmiticgogi]

The fact is the video is great. Nice work man

[@damnyourpasswords]

my friend yours was the best video I ever saw on displaying multiple scenarios. you must be succesful in your job

[@naverilllang]

Writers had a difficult time making the different choices result in three different endings. So they just changed the color palette.

[@47shadows76]

Yo, I know this this vid is supposed to be a joke but This Is Seriously Some of the Finest Editing I've Ever Seen! Forreal, this is Gorgeous! What software did you use to 3 together?

[@coreytheiss]

Wow thanks for the compliment! I used Corel VideoStudio. It was a bit of a pain, but at least I could get the frames to match up perfectly.

[@phoenixking2863]

Gotta agree this was some great software editing but my eyes kinda get crossed in it

[@anerdymuffin9223]

Christopher Dews

[@wayner396]

thanks for posting this, it was neat to see how it really was a pick your color ending... glad they updated it a little with the extended edition but it would have been nice to really have a bunch of different endings with our choices and i do like the "indoctrination" theory that was on the internet...

[@inkchild4115]

okay looking at this without the extended cut, man am I glad I played the trilogy after the dust settled. extended cut helped me like the endings a little

[@priv1leged]

i hope mass effect andromeda isnt just another ending dlc with a custom color set

[@hanzoY248]

priv1leged rip

[@skullmaister]

When Andromeda failed harder than this ending

[@DrWatson4]

@@skullmaister yeah all the attention for andromeda went fully into Peebee if you know what im talking about

[@exoddman]

When they show tte reapers on earth, side by side shots being completely similar, I accidentally started viewing this in 3d with my eyes :D and seeing four images..but whatever - 3D!! ;D

[@Camelotsmoon]

No KZbin, why do you recommend this too me. I don't need to be reminded of how my heart was broken.

[@Ralokone]

notice that the exact same amount of time passes between his flashbacks to his friends . . . .

[@Rookz]

"all the endings"? There's only one as far as I can tell...

[@bloomingiris]

Dat so sad ending music. Every time I hear it, I remember the saddest ending in every video game I played. I would have liked shepard to not die at the end. That's why I choose the destroy ending because it you have enough power shepard can "survive". They should have put after just an image of shepard being saved by his crew and with them.

[@subjectdelta7210]

Old man at the end: it happened so long ago I don’t remember and it doesn’t matter what happened. We’re here now

[@Thesurge747]

Can't wait for the purple and yellow explosions in the extended cut :D

[@yourowndamnecho]

3 games, one choice. "What's your favourite colour?"

[@Pedrojerico]

WTF How could the blast start from the Viper Nebula if the same was destroyed on Arrival dlc of Mass Effect 2?

[@johnnybravous]

It's like experiencing the sadness of the endings 3 times over

[@artmanrom]

:) Thanks,Dear Corey Theiss,now I'm noticing the three primary-light color,blue,green and red,combining them it's resulting white,or blank.:)

[@maceosikes]

Watching this is actually making me angry.

[@Johnfranorge]

I cant belive they thought that this was good enough :S Worst ending to my favorite game series!

[@r16117]

All those choices... all those hours... to change... the colour of the energy wave in the end movie. Having avoided spoilers, and having just finished the game, I now understand why people were pissed off.

[@jefthereaper]

I honestly would have preffered that after these scenes, it would cut back to Shepard lying on the ground before the teleporter to the relay, slowly dying as its being shown to the player that the bits before this were indoctrenation fake visions. With Harbinger saying: “And the cycle goes on”

[@gmanswan]

Here's the confusing/bad part; the way the Reapers put it, Synthesis is almost unquestionably the best option. Everyone lives, the war ends, everybody's happy. But what about everything you've heard about mergers like that over the past 3 games? Mordin: "No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive system, replaced by tech. No soul, replaced by tech." See the problem? Not to mention, the Reapers come down to wipe out organics every 50000 years.Guess what, you just finished their job for them. You've wiped out every single organic in the entire GALAXY. And what about free will? Sure, people are slowly moving towards being more and more tech-filled. But even Shepard is still predominantly human, even after being completely rebuilt by cerberus! None of the people in the galaxy get the choice of whether they want to become synthetic or not, they're just forced, no other option. When you think about it that way, NONE of the final options are viable choices. Synthesis removes your soul and basically just lets the reapers win instantly; destroy kills EDI and the geth, as well as supposedly destroying all reaper-RELATED tech in the galaxy, which means suddenly a whole lot of people will have implants and objects in their bodies that have stopped working, probably leading to their deaths. Not to mention all the starship systems that are related to reaper tech, or the loss of the Mass Effect Relays, without which the entire fleet is now a hundred year journey away from any planet that can feed and house them. And as for control...well, the REAPERS tell you that you're not indoctrinated, and that you can control them, and that you totally won't be controlled by them. Because you can totally believe the reapers. They totally wont lie to you. Not to mention to idea that a single human mind can somehow replace the omnimind that's controlled the reapers for millions of years and not be overwhelmed by the billions of minds contained within each individual reaper. There's just too many bloody places things could go wrong, and then you're right back where you started, or worse, because now they've got everything that Shepard knows about fleet positions, codes, hell they've even got the ability to pretend to be Shepard flawlessly. None of the final options are reasonable, which is why I have always thought that the entire Catalyst plan is just one massive decoy. If a species has the tech ability and resources to build the Catalyst, they are nearing the point where they can defeat the Reapers in a stand-up fight. Not to mention the fact that the Catalyst was designed BY THE REAPERS, with no indication of what it actually does when used! So a species can almost survive, but instead dedicates all its resources to building the bloody catalyst, which proceeds to either instantly make the reapers win, or destroy all the mass effect relays as a fallback plan that will wipe out the vast majority of the enemy fleet without any effort on the Reapers behalf.

[@ascentlx4222]

demiserofd Soooo, what would you choose when you're faced with the ending. I looked at this, and I can't decide. Destroy makes sense to me because I never really liked the Geth. Also, with the release of the extended cut endings, has your opinion changed?

[@demiserofd]

Destroy is the only morally feasible option. Synthesis results in instantly letting the Reapers win. Control gives them Shepard's mind and everyone still loses and dies. Destroy kills everyone who has any implants and cripples galactic transportation, but at least some people are still alive and the reapers are gone, at least for the moment(assuming they didn't leave any reinforcements behind outside the galaxy and the range of the mass effect shockwave). Still, at least people will have a chance.

[@chimerasuchus]

"No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive system, replaced by tech. No soul, replaced by tech." The problem is that the game had already shown beings made entirely with tech that clearly had a soul as much as any organic being. The Extended Cut also makes it very clear that everyone still has a soul and is not under Reaper control. Indeed, it hints even the husks may no longer be under their control. anymore The problem with the Collectors and husks was never that they were partially synthetic, it is that the Reapers took away their freewill and transformed their bodies into murderous monsters. The Synthesis ending, however leaves people with their freewill and looking pretty much the same. As for no one getting a choice of becoming partially synthetic, that is a legitimate concern, but it is by far the least horrible downside of any of the endings since the alternatives are to either commit a much worse act by killing a lot of people, having Shepard basically become a galactic dictator, or doing nothing and letting everyone die. Also, the Control ending is not as bad as you portray either. The Extended Cut makes it clear that Shepard truly is the one controlling the Reapers, not the other way around and, if Paragon, is using them for good. As for how Shepard can control them, it is clarified that the Shepard controlling the Reapers is not the original Shepard, but an AI that was created from Shepard's personality. As for the idea that the Crucible was a trap created by the Reapers, while it would have been an ingenious ploy, the Extended Cut once again makes it clear that is not the case. All three uses of the Crucible break the cycle and either destroy the Reapers or neutralize them as a threat. Furthermore, it it was a trap, it would make more sense to just make capable of one of the result most pleasing to them rather than making it possible for it to destroy them. Finally, the cycle that did build the crucible was clearly incapable of defeating the Reapers otherwise. It takes three to four dreadnoughts to have a reasonable chance of defeating a Reaper. At the time of the war there were only 200 dreadnoughts but a lot more Reapers. That said, while the Catalyst was telling the truth about the Crucible, Shepard still has no reason to trust it in either the original version or Extended Cut. The Leviathan DLC gives Shepard some reason to trust the Catalyst since they now know its origins and motivations, and therefore that each of the endings creates a result it may actually want, but they should still have been a lot more suspicious than they were.

[@AlejandroAcosta-pl9ep]

I think synthesis is actually the worst outcome. It says individuals will still have free will but also that all their knowldege, including the Reapers', is now shared by everyone. That is just another way of brainwashing and control. People won't have different opinions if they alredy know everything the other does and have the same point of view. And if that wasn't the case, the peace that Spacebrat promises if you choose this ending is just a lie, because there still will be conflict. Organics killed each other before the synthetics existed and still do, nothing says that the new synthetised people won't just do the same. Not to mention what immortality implies. New individuals being born without the old ones dying will definetly go very very wrong. One way or another it is just crap and you fucked up. Control on the other hand, has a lot of ways to go wrong, because it doesen't put Shepard in control of the Reapers but an AI based on him, it just translates Shepard's DNA and all the information he has on his brain to code, and nothing says that this new AI won't get to the same conclusion as the previous one(Spacebrat) over time and decide to continue the cycles, initiating other war, but is also could not reach that conclussion and be good. There is a chance for things to go right.And if it was really Shepard's mind and not code because of space magic and bad writing, he just couldn't handle the information of hundreds of thousands of different species and their technology the Reapers collected over millions of years, so I prefer to think it isn't. Destruction has no bad outcome. Yes, you have to sacrifice an entire species and all the existent AIs, but you have to make sacrifices if you want to save the galaxy, and at that point you have alredy made a LOT of sacrifices, this is just the final one to end everything, to achieve what has been your goal since the first game.And if you see it as something good (which I don't because I like the idea of the ultimate sacrifice), Shepard gets to live.

[@chimerasuchus]

The thing about sharing knowledge was meant to meant to mean the sharing of data stores and archives, not something like a hive mind with literally connected minds. It is also likely that people will have less children over time, assuming they do find a way to achieve immortality. The Shepard AI outright states it is not the original Shepard, but it is more than "just code". The games make it clear the true AI does exist in the Mass Effect universe. The version of the Control Ending show it is, at the very least, similar enough to the original, for good or ill depending on what the player's Shepard was like. The Shepard AI is fully capable of handling the information. While their personality is copy of Shepard's, they also have the ability to process all the information As for your views on Destroy, sacrificing an entire species is a very bad outcome. The fact is all of the endings have some kind of sacrifice. The question is which is the smallest one. Of course, I am talking about which ending is the best for the galaxy. If you are referring to which has the best writing, that is an entirely different matter. Even then, the Synthesis Ending does have Shepard make the ultimate sacrifice without having a copy made of them like in the Control Ending.

[@TrOllinM4sTEr]

this vid is why chronotrigger is still to this day the best rpg of all time

[@danish211]

you know there is something wrong when a snes game does a better job of handling multiple endings than a next gen AAA game

[@ISuperGenXI]

***** I know right? The worst part is... I LOVE Mass Effect. I love everything about it except those last ten fucking minutes of Mass Effect 3!

[@danish211]

ISuperGenXI it was a shit ending any hack could have come up with a decent happy or bittersweet ending but they messed up bad

[@ISuperGenXI]

***** Yeah they did. I consider the happy ending mod to be the canon, out of spite. Bioware had a great opportunity to fix it with the extending cut, but they fucked that up too. UGH. I actually just wrote about a paragraph more, but I think I made my point. They piss me off so much.

[@danish211]

ISuperGenXI happy ending mod now im curious

[@Ephraim225]

I'm not even an ME player and this whole thing just slays me. They moved the camera and/or changed the hue of the explosion and called it an ending. Oh, and "The Shepherd"? Seriously?

[@mme1792]

awesome side by side.

[@munmunmurmur4920]

To people that don't understand why people hate this let me explain. Up to this point you've made hundreds of decisions. Each one leading to a different outcome for the rest of the series. Every decision you've made has had an impact and you're taught this since the beginning of the first game. Yet after all of that, after being taught that your decisions matter since the beginning of the series, after making hundreds of important choices through the course of each game, after forging your own adventure, it all leads to one of three options. No matter what you've done before this, the ending are the same. Every choice you've made up to this point doesn't matter. And to make things even worse, not only are there only three endings no matter what you've done, but the endings are all practically the same. Meaning that essentially, every choice you've made up to this point doesn't matter since no matter what path you've taken out of the hundreds that were possible, they all end in the same exact spot. This is why people think that Mass Effect 3 ending is terrible.

[@artman40]

I'd also like to add that developers explicitly promised multiple times that the choices at the end of Mass Ending 3 matter the most.

[@DrWatson4]

@@artman40 quote players will get a different ending to their story than others based on their own personal journey

[@Numenorean921]

also they add an entirely new concept that synthetics and organics will always inevitably come into conflict right at the end of the game, while you're shown multiple instances of synthetics and organics helping eachother throughout the same game.

[@destinedtwo8295]

none of these are real, it's all in Shepards mind.

[@adamnichols476]

ytou realize that theory was debunked by EA themselves right?

[@DrWatson4]

The good news is that ME4 is confirmed and he lives which means that the cannon ending is the one where everyone lives and the reapers die and shepard ain't dead

[@pungrmn]

The one good thing I can say about the ending is that somehow they got Buzz Aldrin as one of the voice actors.

[@VoidMaid]

Lol I love your version's part with the old man. xD

[@Pronounced30]

What made me appreciate theses endings was the Indoctrination Theory after you hear it it makes you feel so stupid for not noticing.

[@ArchangelTyrael]

That theory has more plot holes than the original ending.

[@trgthr9023]

@@ArchangelTyrael which one?

[@PkmnLegendMaster]

Years later, and seeing this is what our promising finale was still gets me angry. So glad I didn't pick up 3 on release. ...And still haven't actually.

[@Aussieduderivs1]

The rest of the game is great though?

[@PkmnLegendMaster]

Aussieduderivs1 A bad ending can ruin a good movie, book, or show. It can and does turn excellent projects mediocre. A good ending can save things, but a bad ending ruins them. The ending to ME3 made the entire trilogy's efforts _pointless_ . Still, I'll give you that it had some great interactions and such.

[@Blazieth]

Worth noting is that the Extended Cut did a lot to repair the damage. The endings still aren't fantastic, but they added a fair bit to turn a total loss into salvageable futures for the Galaxy, and while you can dismiss the slideshow as "it's just a fucking slideshow", it's still one slideshow BETTER than what we had before. It gives us some kind of idea what some of the races and characters get up to once it's all over. It also adds some narration to the endings, and they even sorta scale, producing better results if you have a higher readiness rating. At lower scores, you're stuck with the old Destroy ending, and the relays still get destroyed, but at higher scores, the other endings are available, and the relays are merely damaged, with ending narrations talking about their repair. The refusal/shoot the kid ending is absolutely nothing special, and really is just a slightly fancier non-standard Game Over.

[@PkmnLegendMaster]

Blazieth It helps some, I'll give you that but it's still insulting, especially after the promises they'd given us before the blasted game came out. But, what can you expect? It's EA. They're trash lol.The extended does make it a chunk better, but in the end, the game still makes all your struggles almost completely meaningless.

[@Blazieth]

Like I said, the endings are still bad... but at least the endings actually offer a narrative now. There is narration talking about what happens next, and you are shown what some of the characters are races are doing after the fact. Hell, if the Krogan are cured and are led by Wreave and Eve, one of the slides shows the two of them going to war with each other - implying Eve is trying to prevent another Krogan Rebellion. They're not great, but they're acceptable now, at least in my opinion. It was the fact that they offered no narrative and told us nothing about what happens afterward that I didn't like, destruction of the Mass Relays aside.

[@SteelFyire]

The best part is about that ending is that it branches off into "end task" and "end process", though the latter option takes a bit more work. There's also the hidden alt-tab and "close window" ending, but it pretty much the same as the Ctrl, Alt, Del ending.

[@roastchicken401]

I can't believe this was 8 years ago

[@radicalmortal3421]

I never actually realised how identical they were. Bloody hell. ME4 had better step its game up.

[@christianandersent8263]

Mass Effect 4 will start with other character, not the same shepard from ME1-3 because the shepard in those 3 games are dead in the 3rd game. :(

[@radicalmortal3421]

Yeah, I know. I mean that Bioware should just realise that people love their game so much that they can't screw their fans over with endings as bland and repetitive as this.

[@elmarcus300]

Ion Gamer WRONG WRONG WRONG. If you get the Destroy Ending whit High War Assets, at the end of it, you will see Shepard's Chest, and then after a few seconds, he breaths, like hes waking up. Go check it out, its amazing, when i first saw it i was like "OMG OMG SHEPARD IS ALIVE!!!" just like a 8 year old. :l

[@radicalmortal3421]

elmarcus300 I have gotten that ending. The chance of people just getting it are very minimal though. What about the people who chose Control? Synthesis? Destroy with too low EMS? I know Bioware wouldn't screw their fans over like that *again* just by default saying they chose Destroy when they didn't. I know that there's the smallest possibility that Shepard will be in it, but I really doubt it's plausible (besides, Bioware have said that they are likely doing it in a completely different universe)

[@valentinatgaray8921]

elmarcus300 You're right. That is supposed to be the "right" ending, considering the blue one was always Illusive Man's option and the green one was Saren's choice in ME1.

[@WatcherLex_]

Why didn't I get to see who opens the damn door?

[@Subject64]

They died in yours then

[@WatcherLex_]

CookieDeGallo Actually, I bought the dlc pack and now I saw them survive.

[@Frenzlin]

You are a genius

[@samigarnett2]

This brings back painful feelings...

[@christopherhall5361]

so, since the destruction of a mass relay releases enough energy to destroy the system it occupies (as evidenced by Shepard destroying one in ME2), Shepard caused galaxy wide mass extinctions over what appears to be close to 75% of the galaxy, Earth is gone too BTW, thanks Shep

[@aster1222]

Only the Destroy end keeps you alove watch the end

[@johnwang9914]

Note how Joker has to tap faster for the ship to move faster and with the destroy ending, he taps the controls a lot faster than with the other endings.

[@vitalitytoe]

the song gets to me everytime.

[@KubaxKristallmond]

I am very glad i got my ME 3 Digital Deluxe Version with the Extended Cut already implemented. But even without that, the only thing to do is the Destroy option, regardless if it kills the Geth and EDI off. For Shepard would never consider neither Control nor Synthesis. Both of these options not only go against his / her morals (playing 100% Paragon here :D), but they are quite feeble attempts to shroud the true reason why the Starchild suggests them - Survival. Because if Destroy option is chosen, ALL Synthetics "die" / cease to exist, including himself. Knowingly or not, he tries to coax Shephard to choose "right" so he can continue to exist. Or at least that's how i interpret things. And regarding ME4 - i frankly be surprised if they didn't start something completely new. I mean, it would be lovely if you could not use a savegame but most of the Intel and whatnot you gathered through ME 1-3 in the new game. Heck, maybe even create a Character / Background based on if you had a successful (and long lasting) relationship with a love interest. Carrying on the legacy of your father / mother Shepard etc. etc. Let's see with what they come up with - hopefully not James from ME 3 as Main Character >

[@sai35400]

KubaxKristallmond I think the fact that shepard accept to listen the starchild (his ennemy) and say "yeah ok I make a choice " it's more against the shepard we knew, he/she never surrender so easily before ans I was like WTF

[@Soulfly415]

sai35400 Yeah that's why in the extended cut they put a fourth option in which Shepard refuses and it's a one big fuck you in your face by bioware team.

[@israelhenderson4672]

+KubaxKristallmond I personally believe that the best ending is the 4th option. Decline all options and fight. My favorite way to enact it is to shoot the starchild in the face. With this ending we have no clue what happens. Except that the reapers eventually lose in the end thanks to the efforts of the current cycle.

[@anynamewilldo7776]

+israel henderson but Liara's hologram says they failed.

[@looinrims]

Any Name Will Do they did, but the next cycle was able to prepare

[@abrahamdrinkin2534]

In a game like this I don’t see how you can end it without a “slideshow” style ending like in the Fallout games, mainly F1, F2, and FNV. Regardless of what you do to the Reapers, if this game had multiple endings for each race beyond “they lived” or “they died” it might have been the CATALYST to put this trilogy into the stuff of gaming legends.

[@st0ox]

I always wanted know how the pixels on my screen looked like from up close.

[@mitubo1915]

good video thanks!

[@caligula7117]

merge end is the best shepard dies but he make an peace and all robots survives

[@torbenfranke1859]

Aah... I remember having used my free weekend to plow through this when this got out. I was a militaryman myself at the time and literally sacrificed my weekend off instead of visiting my girl at the time... I admit, I was shocked.

[@ihatemondays6969]

Mine ended the cutscene as soon as the door opened a crack; didn't know that it ended with the crew getting out too

[@jacobcaster]

I would like to see an option if you have a high enough score for Shepard to notice that through the window the Reapers are slowly loosing and to then tell the starkid that it looks like he is wrong about everything and can do stuff on their own. Then cut to a cinematic of several of the reapers trying to disengage. Then fade to epilogue.

[@cherrysorenson3247]

shit when ou comapre them its the shitist endings in game history! its all pretty much the same

[@mistersmiley9425]

Endings too me is... Destroy = Renegade (No. Not because of the color, if you wish for an explanation just ask) Control = That inbetween/mostly Renegade Merge = Paragon.

[@a-mellowtea]

+NOD Gaming Okay, here's my counter, because I can already assume why you would say Destroy is renegade. For Destroy, yes, you're wiping out all synthetic life in the galaxy - essentially, you're also committing genocide by extinguishing an entire race (the Geth). But, while this is made out to be the worst option, it's actually the best in terms of the story. You're destroying the Reapers - what you've set out to do since the beginning. For Control, I agree that it's in-between. You're accepting that there might be an alternative, but effectively following the path of the game's main antagonist (don't even get me started on how TIM is the main antagonist for ME3), thus rendering any argument you made against him not 10 minutes ago completely moot. For Synthesis, what are you doing? Remember ME1? Remember Saren? Yeah, you're doing what _he_ wanted to do. Paraphrasing here, but it was something along the lines of, "Organic and synthetic intertwined - a union of flesh and steel. The strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither." and "I am a vision of the future, Shepard. This is how we must evolve." And what was the point of ME1? Oh, right - stopping Saren, because we all agreed he was off his rocker. Yet here, when it's presented to the player, we forget that and it's the best option? Eh, no. Not to mention you're changing the _entire_ galaxy without anyone's input, and just expecting everyone to accept it.

[@mistersmiley9425]

respect mah authoritah. -Commander Eric Cartmen.

[@cobyb.8029]

+Sarah Tilgner Except Sarin was just a tool and the reapers had no intention of actually sparing anybody. The merge option spares everybody and stops the reapers

[@gab_gallard]

+Sarah Tilgner. I just don't see how the destruction ending is the best in terms of story. Specially if you ended the Geth-Quarian war. Shepard befriended a Geth, understood their motivations, was the first organic ever to participate in a Geth consensus, and ended a centuries long war between them and the Quarian, achieving one of galaxy's most wanted peaces. And then you just kill them all like if all that long narrative arc (and one of the major themes behind the Mass Effect universe, that lasted for all three games) meant literally nothing. Not to mention that the destruction of all synthetic life means that you kill EDI as well, which was a loyal and useful companion since ME 2, and whose death will surely devastate Joker, a person so important for Shepard that he/she sacrified his/her life in order to put him on safety (the fact that Joker walks off the Normandy at the end like if nothing has happened, without any worries about EDI's death is just a sign of Bioware don't giving a single fuck about the credibility of their own characters). Also, the destruction of synthetic life is useless in the long term, because although the reconstruction could easily last for centuries, eventually some species will start to experiment with AI again. The Crucible may well have destroyed all current synthetic life in the galaxy, but it can't do anything against scientific curiosity.

[@MrRandomerz]

That's the price of war though, Synthesis seems too happy happy. If you play a perfect playthrough destroy is a fitting end, that no matter what Shepard can't escape the fact they can't save everyone. Better than brainwashing everyone ever and rewriting their genetic code

[@washmyorange]

The bit that pissed me off the most was the little data-pad part at the end trying to sell me DLC.

[@markoneill9712]

The very first time i played it the scene cut to credits as soon as the door opened

[@CorneliusWiens]

I LOVE this series with all my heart and I loved the ending.

[@impulse577]

Worst endings ever, I still have not recovered after playing through once. I can hardly pick up my Xbox controller anymore because of it.

[@TweediestGrain4]

That's the buety (I can't spell) of having an unexplained ending now it's what ever you want the ending to be NO ONE can tell you otherwise

[@NovaFerret]

That last line said by the old man at the end "One more story" I wonder if that means that bio-ware might make some sort of sequel.

[@johnmclean8414]

They are indeed

[@DrWatson4]

@@johnmclean8414 yep first of all it was surprise its ME... Andromeda haha got you : ( now guess what ME...4 is real its confirmed and he lives the reaper destruction while everyone lives ending is confirmed the canon ending woop woop