Although I answered with D, I am surprised to see its winning.

I hated the original ending at first, but then grew to accept it. The DLC endings made it better. Neither were what I expected or wanted, especially after assembling all of the forces of the galaxy that I possibly could have, but they were fine.

This is the issue with Mass Effect and why so many were surprised about it's position on the community poll. Everyone only ever talks about the ending! Never what the community thought about the rest of the game!

Also my option is present: Didn't mind the original ending but preferred the Extended Cut

After getting stuck on the one boss reaper fight & dozens of times trying it, I can conclude from what I saw that I didn't like it. The eavesdropping side quests, tripping over cameos from people in the previous games, earth under siege but wait until I deliver this kitten to Liara's friend on the other end of the galaxy (no rush), shallow multiplayer with lottery loot & the choice of having the adventure game/0 combat mode just really felt to me like they took all the feedback from the previous games in the series put it in a room for while to let them think about it only to come back to find that marketing people got in the room weeks ago to put their own silly improvements in it. As silly as the last boss fight was in ME2, I'd rather play through the first two games again than play ME3 for 5 minutes.

It's easy to bash ME3 (and it deserves it), but to be honest I think Mass Effect 2 deserves a lot more blame for how the trilogy ended up. It remains a fantastic game in its own right, but it totally failed as the second act of a trilogy. It effectively covered no ground and left ME3 with way too much to do, which is why it turned out how it did. They should not have waited until the final act before starting and ending a galactic war.

I think that it's not a great game and that it has way bigger problems than the ending. The gameplay, the story, the missions, etc are all pretty bad, repetitive and not interesting. It's not a terrible game but it's not great either in my opinion. Turret sequences, small environments, the sidequests, every combat mission being almost the same and so on are far bigger reasons to dislike the game.

I still really like it

Hated, hated, the original ending.

Loved, loved, the multiplayer.

Actually quite enjoyed the bulk of the singleplayer and, overall, felt really happy about the way it brought closure to the characters I loved in that universe.

It was my Game of the Year.

Way too many options on your poll. They should be "I enjoyed ME3", I didn't like it until the EC ending", and "I didn't like ME3".

The game was bad, and I find the defenders that naysay any criticism to be tiring.

I loved it. I cannot see the logic behind the blind hate for this game. The only reason I can think of is my totally unfounded theory that gamers just hate conclusions/endings.

I didn't play it till after the EC and boy, I can't believe what it was like before because I already found it to be so bare bones and so slight in content. To spend that much time and wrap the game up that way. Ugh.

Perhaps if they didn't do such stupid drastic things and had a more reasonable end game they could have expanded more on the ending. But no. It's a shame.

@LikeaSsur said:

I loved it. I cannot see the logic behind the blind hate for this game. The only reason I can think of is my totally unfounded theory that gamers just hate conclusions/endings.

It's not blind. And I don't hate the game overall. Yes some go overboard, the game isn't bad, but the ending just isn't good in any way, to me. It was also gutted by DLC bullshit.

I think most game endings are bad but this generation has given me the two best I've ever played (Walking Dead and Red Dead Redemption) so I don't hate conclusions, by any means.

Really, they tried to get too fancy and dramatic and sweeping with how the end played out. If they just kept it simple it would have been fine. ME 1's ending was perfectly fine.

The only options being "love" or hate" in this poll perfectly encapsulates internet thinking at large.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's definitely apparent how the series focused more and more on the action as the series progressed. But I'm a sucker for Epic Space Opera. Mass Effect 3 helped feed that need.

Honestly my biggest gripe with the third game were the side missions and scanning minigame. I mean the ones where about every hour of play I'd have to go back to the Citadel, wander the entire thing looking for some new conversation to eavesdrop on so I can run out and do that awful fucking scanning thing, find whatever item it was I'm looking for, completely forget I picked it up cause there's no damn way to look at it in your inventory, and finally make my way back to the Citadel to repeat the whole process.

I remember being completely amazed that they could somehow do worse then the planet probing minigame in ME2. Fuck just give me back the Mako. I hate that thing but it's WORLDS better then planet probing and planet scanning.

It's that bit alone that really makes me not want to play through the third again. If I do I doubt I'll touch most of that stuff. Maybe I'll do a "You done fucked up" run where I just screw up everything.

Multiplayer was killer though. I love me some horde bullshit.

@ArtisanBreads: How could ending a galactic war not be dramatic? And Mass Effect 1's ending was a cliffhanger if I ever saw one. Your affection for it just supports my theory.

@LikeaSsur said:

@ArtisanBreads: How could ending a galactic war not be dramatic? And Mass Effect 1's ending was a cliffhanger if I ever saw one. Your affection for it just supports my theory.

1) The ending wasn't a galactic war... what do you mean? That was the whole game. It was the unnecessary choices presented. They didn't fit with the rest of the series and went way overboard in altering how it would continue.

2) ME 1's ending was not a cliff hanger. You dealt with a Reaper, dealt with Saren, and knew there was a larger threat. Plenty satisfying to me. It was the only game in the series that had a villain and you took him down. It had the most satisfying closure of any of the games. Also, you're theory is clearly rejected by my other two examples of endings I liked.

I feel the same about ME3 as the day I beat it. Great game with a weak ending. Never watched the new ending they made.

My world didn't come crashing down after seeing the original ending and the extended ending was good but not necessary in my opinion. It was just the internet being the internet.

I didn't mind the original ending, haven't seen any of the new stuff or DLC. Currently in the process of playing thought ME3 again with all the DLC, so far, still loving the game. Well Omega was kinda meh...

@ArtisanBreads said:

1) The ending wasn't a galactic war... what do you mean? That was the whole game. It was the unnecessary choices presented. They didn't fit with the rest of the series and went way overboard in altering how it would continue.

The ending clearly deals with the war in a major way. Whether the choices are unnecessary or not is a matter of opinion, but the ending....well, ends the war (unless Refusal is chosen).

2) ME 1's ending was not a cliff hanger. You dealt with a Reaper, dealt with Saren, and knew there was a larger threat.

Um.....yeah, I don't think this is up for debate. That underlined sentence is exactly what a cliffhanger is.

Also, you're theory is clearly rejected by my other two examples of endings I liked.

You're one person out of millions. Just because you don't fit into my statistic does not reject the whole theory. The term "statistically insignificant" comes to mind.

None of the above. The ending had nothing to do with what is wrong with that game. Mainly being, it had a lot of excess baggage that brings it down. The side quests are dull and there's to much fan service.  
 
There's some genuinely great moments, and the game play is improved, but the story was weak, and it had a lot of boring busy work in order to feel like you are playing it correctly. 
 
All said, it is a massive disappointment to me and for me it had little to do with the ending.

There should be a selection for being largely indifferent towards the ending. If I recall correctly, most game endings are shit and after Dragon Age II and realizing that ME3 came out close to two years after ME2, I didn't really have high expectations for the final 12-ish minutes.

@Gamer_152 said:

I thought it was pretty silly that the ending came to define the game for so many to begin with. However bad you thought that ending was, there was a whole game leading up to it which should have been judged on its own merits. I think what happened was too many people took for granted the positive qualities of Mass Effect, and it made the negative stand out all the more for them. Still, that ending was really bad, there were so many things wrong with it on so many levels. I respect Bioware for putting out the Extended Cut for free, but that could only go so far towards fixing it.

I've gone into more detail about it before, but my basic thoughts on the Extended Cut are that while it gave the ending the emotional weight it felt like it should have had, and it helped fixed a number of other problems, there are still a serious number of issues with that ending even with it included. I know there are people out there who had no problems with that ending, even to begin with, but I'm still not one of them. It feels okay, and in another game series might have been seen as something breathtaking, but I don't think it lived up to what Mass Effect was.

I agree with a lot of this, but I'm also gonna throw in that I liked the original ending AND the extended cut, which I do NOT see represented as an option.

But yeah, I really feel like people just zeroed in on THE ENDING and completely disregarded Mordin, drunk Tali, hung over Ashley, Garrus just being GARRUS, how awesome James turned out despite his character model, and even Jack's return (though I'll admit that last one is probably more personal than the others).

Edit: And how could I forget an ENTIRE BLASTO MOVIE?! Badassedly: That part alone was worth the price of admission.

@TheHumanDove said:

The game was bad, and I find the defenders that naysay any criticism to be tiring.

The game was good, and I find the haters that needlessly attack the game to be tiring.

Seriously though, there wasn't an option for me. I didn't love or hate the ending. I thought it was fine and kinda glossed over it because I enjoyed the rest of the game (and series) so much. I think it's a great game with a few flaws, not unlike ME2.

I laughed when I got to the Catalyst. Before the game came out I remember thinking, "man I hope they don't just cop out and give us a two or three choice ending." Boy was I in for a treat. ME3 is by far the weakest of the trilogy. Characters like Liara and Mordin have become caricatures, ME2 squadmates are given brief meaningless parts, and the Priority Earth mission was so damn underwhelming. It just sucks because for me this was it. This was the gaming franchise that no other could touch. And then ME3 came out. I don't hate it, but I was greatly disappointed.

I must abstain from voting, as I found the original ending to be sub-par and the extended cut to mildly less sub-par, and overall I enjoyed the game enough to give it a full second play through on insanity. Overall I really like Mass Effect 3.

Where's the option that says quit digging the goddamn horse outta the ground and move the fuck on with your lives?

Another option was needed ..... liked the EC a bit more but still not enough or too little too late :(

Just you know I havent loaded the Single Player after the extended cut ... not even bought the dlcs ..... that most be telling something and I have no desire at the moment to play it.

I did not care about the ending one way or the other. The EC was installed when I got to the end, but I hit escape and did not bother to watch any of the last cut scenes. To some extent it was annoying how slow Shepard walks during the last bit, but eh w/e.

It seemed fine, but I'm not sure why anyone would hit the end of mass effect and care about it at all. I think if they had done something more along the lines of the Quake 2 ending hallway it would have been more entertaining, and fit what I liked out of the game better (and I did enjoy the game a whole lot).

I still love Mass Effect 3, and it's still my favorite game of the year. I hated the original ending because it confused the heck out of me, but the extended cut cleared everything up for me.

I don't hate the ending in concept, I just scratched my head at the execution of it. I didn't really need to see the EC ending, because a lot of the parts in the EC I already foresaw. The one part of the ending that I really disliked was the child. The child was supposed to represent my "guilt," and the visual representative of the Intelligence, but that child would've been better served as characters like Mordin, Kaidan, or the squadmates I lost along the way. EspeciallyMordin.

I thought the original ending was fine: not great, not lousy. Just disappointing compared to the earlier, better emotional moments in ME3 (my expectations were raised by moments like that with Mordin and with Kolyat, and the end wound up emotionally flat and cold). I liked it better after the EC, but it's still just adequate. Shepard should have been with his companions in the end, not alone, and there should have been something more personal at stake in the final moments. The end was a long info dump, more like a plot outline than an actual ending. I didn't mind the content, I just didn't think it was presented in a way that was satisfying.

So, none of the poll options seemed to fit for me.

I thought the original ending was a horrible way to end an epic trilogy of games. It was so rushed and ill conceived that it literally damaged the franchise.

Never cared to play through the game again to see the EC, although along with the DLC, it does sound like it makes a huge improvement to it overall. It just seems like too little, too late and Bioware's shift in direction has left me very soured.

I am still of the opinion that the writing was pretty bad in some regards. The execution of that whole kid dying/guilt-ridden nightmares thing was poor and felt corny. This was balanced with some nice character moments which I actually can't remember for certain whether I liked them or not. Gameplay was the same ol' same ol' (combat arena mixed with corridor shooting) and endless consumption of exposition masked as RPG-gameplay. The ending (EC) was fitting. It's not like the stories of prior games were something to write home about. It's all well and good in the land of self sacrificing chosen ones and it ended up being pretty emotional (probably mostly thanks to the incredible score). The worst part about the end-game was the final "survive until X happens" part, not the narrative bits.

There were quite a few cool moments packed in between some dull nonsense and as with the previous games, its epic-space-opera part came out to be the weak link. Unique missions that have you explore a place and discover something without forcing you to fight through tons of boring enemies are usually the strong points of the games. That and the occasional fun dialog exchange or dramatic talk-off with a villain.

All that hubbaloo about the original ending is fairly ridiculous and stupid, in my book. There were major problems with it, though they were mostly of a structural nature and got fixed with the inserted scenes from the EC (the ship picking up your 2 crew people before you step into the teleport for the most part). I think all the fuss made about that ending was wasted time. Much like the whole series ended up being wasted potential, sadly.

Those are my "final" Mass (Mess?) Effect 3 thoughts.

I didn't care for the ending all too much. The EC helped though. But, I'm not gonna make the ending ruin my Mass Effect experience. ME3 was a great game and the hubbub about the ending was ridiculous. ME is still one of my favorite series of this gen.

No vote would be accurate so...no vote for me. However, I didn't 'hate' the ending but it was too thin and the game was obviously pushed out before it was really done. The mp was just awesome though and a huge surprise that kinda balanced against the story ending so I was very happy w/the game originally. Then the DLC just improved the ending quiite a bit and the Leviathan stuff added some very cool canon and filled in some more story gaps. Yes I wish it would have been in the release, but I really believe most of this was beyond Bioware's control due to deadlines imposed by EA. Great game overall, and ME is my fav series ever.

I really enjoyed the multiplayer, and most of the game right up to the end.

I think the original set of endings were really terrible, to the point of turning me off the franchise. The extended endings did clear up somethings, and I think if I had gotten those as my first impression, I would have still been disappointing with the ending, but less so.

If the game had ended with Shepard and Anderson, had no final choice, and then jumped to the extended slideshow stuff, it probably would have been game of the year.

@AlisterCat said:

The poll seems biased. I thought the original ending was fine and I loved the extended cut ending. That's it.

Pretty much.

I played Mass Effect 3 for the first time the same way Brad did, with Leviathan, From Ashes and the extended cut installed. I only played it because I knew at some point they were going to discuss it in depth. And I have to agree with Brad as it (maybe) being Game of the Year. Some of the writing was a little off, but I really liked romancing Liara, after having done that in Mass Effect 1 and also doing it in 2 with Lair of the Shadow Broker. There was some great character stuff hidden away, and I'd actually say that as a whole across three games, the Liara/Shepard romance line is the best thing in Mass Effect.

If I sit down and actually think about where Bioware has left that universe now, my feelings for it change a little. But experiencing Leviathan and the extended cut before I knew about the ending had a big impact. It's just such a shame that very few people experienced it like that.

They way i look at there's a lot of parallels between how people view these 3 games and the original 3 star wars movies. some love the first one as it was a new experience for them, the second is held up as the pinnacle of the series and most won't shut up about how ewoks/endings ruined the third.

I don't care about the ending, the game was more poorly written, acted, and performed than previous games in the series, to my eyes. Its faults were more with the fact that everything I was doing just wasn't as interesting as it had been in previous games. Still well made and all, but its trouble living up to previous games had more to do with that than problems with the ending

I think Zodiac Motherfucker had a pretty good summary of Mass Effect 3. ME3 killed all my interest in all things Mass Effect.

Even after all this time has passed i still don't like ME3. ME2 was my game of the year 2010 so ME3 had a lot to live up to, but it falls flat to me when compared with either of it's predecessors. It just does very little to evoke the feel i want out of a mass effect game. They wrote themselves into a tough spot, and failed to rise to that challenge. Even if i disregarded the ending i still wouldn't call it an ok mass effect game because the overall experience was that much inferior. I wish that wasn't the case, and i dislike the way this game tainted the franchise for me.

Why have the dead vote options? They serve no meaningful purpose save to dilute the vote. If people neither played the game or haven't finished their votes shouldn't have any weight.

The ending didn't have that much influence over my enjoyment of the overall game so it wasn't a deciding factor on my opinion on it and it was still a pretty good game which managed to squeeze out feelings and highs other games never managed to.

I never played any of the dlc or even touched it a second time since it just felt my journey with that game was done.

I didn't think the original ending was great and a bit abrupt, but I never felt the outrage that a lot of people seemed to, I found the game overall an enjoyable experience if not perhaps as thrilling as Mass Effect 2. So I can't really vote in the poll.

The game was much better than its ending, but the ending was the very last thing of this trilogy, the final taste in your mouth that was supposed to reflect the strength of the series by bringing all your choices together (in my opinion), but they dropped the ball and subsequently the last memory you have of this phenomenal series was a weird-ass ending that threw everything out the window. It's really sad that that's what happened.

Well I don't define the quality of a game based on 20 minutes of a 20 hour experience. I thought the 19 hours and 40 minutes leading up to the ending were brilliant. The ending wasn't great in a lot of ways, but I thought a couple of the choices were interesting. The EC endings kind of rubbed me the wrong way because they took out the part of the mass relays being destroyed. I kind of liked the idea of everything starting fresh without Reaper tech. So I was disappointed they took that out. I liked the additional explanation I guess. Honestly, think about all the games you've played in your life. How many of them had a disappointing or bad ending? Probably most of them. Game endings are rarely great but that doesn't make the game bad. Look at all the comments about Far Cry 3. Ending sucked, but the game was fun regardless so it is still great. That's my general opinion. With a great ending and some other minor alterations the game could have been a 5/5. Now it is just a 4/5 but that still means it is a great game. Point is, games are lengthy experiences made up of numerous elements. Saying that the entire experience in invalid because of the final 20 minutes is stupid. A lot of games have terrible endings. In fact I would argue most games have terrible endings. The only difference here is that the 20 hours leading up to this ending were so good that people actually cared. And that is a pretty amazing achievement and for that I say the team should be really pleased.

I was...confused about the original ending. At first, it was more of a culture-shock; I watched my roommate reach it a month before I made it to that last room. Then, disappointment with a lack of a true confrontation with The Illusive Man. Eventually, acceptance when I walked down that path myself, as destruction of the Reapers was my personal goal, and Indoctrination Theory had already floated around and was...well, interesting. For a few months, numbness towards the ending, and frustration with a couple elements that didn't work for me.

Then the Extended Cut happened. Anger all over again. A misunderstanding of the Refusal ending, that seemed to read that Shepard's strength led to their loss. Months later, I began to listen to podcasts and read essays focused on Mass Effect 3's narrative.

Now? Adoration. No game has an ending as though-provoking and divisive as the ending to Mass Effect 3. I've read brilliant essays on both sides of the argument, heard fantastic arguments from both sides as well, and also excellent essays and criticisms voiced long before the Extended Cut materialized.

Needless to say, it has its problems. "This Is Not A Pipe" pretty much covers that part. But...well, it's beautiful, too.