October 2024

The Mass Effect Trilogy: Becoming Legend

After nearly a hundred hours, I have finally rolled credits on Mass Effect 3. A series that was created in 2007. 17 years ago. A series I grew up around, albeit on the periphery (in my ME1 review here). A series that felt so mature and was endless in scope. A true space opera. A series whose first two games I scored a 9/10 and 10/10, respectively.

A series so strong, I wrote a love letter to it.

Even with all of that well-earned goodwill, I must admit, I spent most of Mass Effect 3 incredibly frustrated and bored. I was so angry at the shallowness of the new characters, the litany of bugs (way more than ME1 or ME2), and endless fetch-quests and mismatched game mechanics. The shameless fan-service and lazy re-introduction of past characters.

However, by the end, each of those 100 hours rose within me and spilled out in the tears leading up the final moments.

Those last few hours revealed a lot about my experience with ME3. How the uninterrupted story missions, with excellent cut-scenes and impactful moments reminded me how good this series could truly be. That I had traversed a galaxy and should have perished a hundred times over. That I had been learning and growing with Liara and Garrus and Tali for years. My mark was left, and I truly felt it was for the better. However, it was also those last few hours that made me realize where I had gone wrong.

If I were to go back in time and give advice on how to maximize the good and minimize the bad of this game, then I would recommend doing less. I wish the developers were less concerned with making a larger game, and more concerned with the continuity of the world they built. The DLCs are story/character development light and bloat the game with fetch quests and meaningless quests. Perhaps the worst effect is that they introduce mechanics that are shallow and distracting – such as Shepard taking sides in conversations. The result is constantly being annoyed. Having to escape reapers on the world map, fetching objects for no plot impact, and landing on a planet only long-enough to hear some canned dialogue and kill a few Cerberus agents. You literally are making a progress bar go up for most of the game. This was in stark contrast to a few outstanding missions, with excellent dialogue and lore revelations. While not completely the fault of the DLC, each of these cinematic sequences was hindered by being shoved in between a bunch of stuff that just didn’t matter. I couldn’t shake my frustration and began rushing through content and not appreciating the parts of this game that make it shine.

I was so desperate to soak in every moment of this game that I nearly ruined the experience for me.

Mass Effect 1 was so successful to me because it was short. It was empty and vast, and that was okay! It added to the mystique of the world and its inhabitants. Leaving some things to speculate on is healthy in a space opera. A striking linear story left a hefty impact. Mass Effect 2 increased everything by multiple factors and improved upon essentially every part of Mass Effect 1. It took one story about a hero and a villain and placed it in the broader drama of the universe. The expanded set of characters (who were diverse with strong backstories) were complemented by believable evolution of the old guard from ME:1. And, there is simply no beating the final mission of ME:2. It’s genius is that the ending is dependent on the unique features of the game they had made. The decision-making, the team selection, and the large set pieces. It was an ending that could only work in a game like this.

Contrast this with ME:3. The new characters are one-dimensional, exceptionally problematic (with no character growth), and lacking in their role in the game. You gave us a sex robot, a fascist alien (we don’t need another Ashley), and an incel. I stayed away from these characters as much as I possibly could. Even if you do engage, they don’t grow or change. Then, you take the returning cast and give no depth to their backstories since returning. Contrast this with Garrus’ arc from ME1 to ME2, a naive C-Sec agent who turns into the vigilante the Archangel. It follows his values and how he changed because of the events of ME1. In ME3, there is no investment and no growth or change. Throwing them in and just hoping that enough nostalgia will make them stick.

Perhaps this is the nature of an ever-expanding universe with loose-ends piling up in tandem with strict production timelines. Too bad, there were multiple excellent stories right under their noses.

Core to the narrative of Mass Effect are two conundrums: the inevitability synthetic intelligence and the irreconcilable differences between organics and synthetics. Put simply, organic life will always create synthetics, which will become sentient and thus incompatible with organic life. One will exterminate the other, and another cycle continues. This is explained in the final moments of ME3 by God(!). Synthetics require understanding and organics cannot manage an existential threat by seeing synthetics surpass them – yet necessitate creating synthetics to progress. Outside of the conflict with synthetics, we see that organics – even under the most dire and unforgivable circumstances – can be made to reconcile. We see this with the Turians, Salarians, and Krogan. However, it is made very clear that these tactics and solutions are not extendable to relations with synthetics. With time and the right circumstances, you are able to bring races together that had attempted to eradicate each other’s existence. However, it is impossible to imagine an amicable relationship between Reapers and organic life.

And yet, perhaps the most moving story-line in ME3 contradicts just this imperative: The Geth and the Quarians.

It is endlessly frustrating that we are exposed to Legion, perhaps the most novel side-character in the trilogy, only to squander its impact. The revelations we witness by Legion’s mere existence (and following role in ME3) change the terms of engagement for the galaxy – a world in which synthetics and organics are cohabitating without requiring a change in culture, war, or by making one class subservient. These are the exact conditions necessary to wrap up the core conflict of Mass Effect in a complex and meaningful way. If you build a space opera, you can’t suddenly have a shallow ending that wraps up all the loose-ends and gives a happily ever after. It’s insulting to the players and disrespectful to the world. Somehow, we meet God, and it is impossible to imagine a new order without either merging (cop out), controlling (becoming God), or destroying (dooming to repeat) the synthetics. These ideas fit better within a character like the Illusive Man, who is supposed to provide the cool rationale – that is often quite viable – which should philosophically challenge Shepard’s assumptions and decisions. Yet, the Illusive Man becomes a shell of himself and loses his mystique and intellectual superiority complex. It becomes a childish ideological battle with little nuance. Even Joker and EVA’s relationship offers a microcosm into the existential question of what sentience means across and between organic and synthetic “life.”

While there was much potential to be found in an ending that builds on the existing lore of the universe, the reason why it is so offensive are the after-effects of the final decision. The “green” ending is the merging of synthetics and organics. By erasing difference, you erase conflict. This assimilationist attitude is one, handled poorly by immediately resolving a conflict thousands of years old in mere minutes, and two, falsely represents what the problem in the universe was. Difference does not need to be eliminated. Indeed, we see that the true successes of the Mass Effect universe has been steadfast rejection of: enslavement, assimilation, and eradication. It is through the legwork of relationship rebuilding that allows these histories to be addressed and political tensions to resolved. There is no magic cure. There is no switch you can flip. Second, the “blue” ending – become God. This is enslavement. Third, the “red” ending – destroy synthetic life. This is eradication.

That is the point of Mass Effect 3: it is the coaltion-building of the universe, rather than domination, that uniquely allows Shepard to succeed where the Protheans failed.

Javik’s role is to reveal this – he even begrudgingly admits this. The God character even affirms this. To not extend this to reconcile with the Reapers is the greatest disappointment in the potential of this galactic drama.

I still have so much love for this series and can’t wait to revisit it in a few years time!

Se la vie, Mass Effect. What a ride.