It’s an appalling, sub-par, plot hole ridden, unsatisfactory and unnecessary ending that raises more questions than it answers.

Why that dumb kid?
Why only those three options?
Why can’t Shepard say “NO!” and kick that kid in his face?
Where is Harbinger, and why is he so important in ME2, but not in ME3?
What happens with the remaining troops in the sol system?
Why is Joker fleeing through the relay network?
How can Garrus and Liara be on board the Normandy when they were at my side fighting reaper troops mere moments ago?
How did the Illusive man gain access to the Citadel?
Why can’t the reapers be defeated without destroying the mass relays?
Where are my allies in the final push toward the bright tower thingy?
Where are Aria’s mercs, the Krogan, the Turians, the Salarian STG, Geth troops, etc. etc. etc.?
Why are the reapers’ theme/purpose a massive ripoff of the anime “Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann”?
How do my actions throughout the game define the outcome of the final battle?
What happens to Admiral Anderson?
Was Shepard indoctrinated or not?
What happens after the Control ending?
What happens after the Destroy ending?
What happens after the Synthesis ending?
Can the mass relays be rebuilt?
Who survived the final battle?
What happens to all the characters that survived the final battle?
What is up with the grandfather and his kid in the last video clip? Who are they?
Does Liara have any of my blue babies? I was promised blue babies!
What happened to the people on the Citadel? Dr. Michel? Kolyat? Commander Bailey? The council? Aria?

All these questions (give or take a few) are all valid and need answering. The ending is not a proper closure, it’s an incomplete mess, and it does not serve the trilogy right. These games are amazing, but the ending takes everything we’ve fought so hard for in the previous two and a half games and takes a big fat dump on its face.

The ending is an insult, and the fact that the rest of the game is of such high quality just adds insult to injury. The expectations for the ending are constantly getting higher and higher the longer you play the game, and when you finally get to the end, it’s such a letdown it has had fans become extremely frustrated. And with good reason.

Actually, the ending (or at least, the “Control” ending) isn’t so bad. The Relays actually just take structural damage and don’t completely blow up in this ending. Given that Shepard controls the Reapers in this ending, he could just make them repair all the relays and galactic life could actually resume. Sure, the other endings (especially Synthesis) suck and some things could still be addressed in all three to make them better, but that’s typical of any form of art/entertainment media: something could be improved, because true perfection is impossible.

The idea of the entire game as a conclusion makes a lot of sense. The ending doesn’t have to address the state of the galaxy; you’ve been doing that the whole time through the change Shepard brings as the campaign proceeds. All the ME3 ending had to do was, well, end the fight. And it did.

/*/ Spoilers follow /*/

Have you even played the series? have you even considered how big a mistake Bioware has done by narrowing every single decision taken in the prior three games down to three miniscule, near-identical, plot-hole filled, unsatisfactory, meta-physical, “raises more questions than it answers” type endings?

It’s not because Shepard dies, it’s not because the galaxy is left in a technological darkness, it’s because that after every single decision, every single character interaction, every single conversation, every single bullet fired, every single step taken is ultimately in vain, because not only are we given JUST three endings (no matter what we’ve done prior), they are also very badly executed. The game itself even hints at so many different outcomes (talk to Aria and she’ll tell you what you gain by recruiting the mercenaries, as if it would become useful later in the game), it also builds up so much atmosphere, so much tension that the sub-par ending falls flat on its tail because it’s been done so poorly.

/*/ Spoilers end /*/

A LOT of people are very unsatisfied with the ending of Mass Effect 3, and with very good reason. Entire articles on various sites have even fleshed out some of the major reasons that the ending(s) suck(s). People are angry, and they have every right to be angry. And I can assure you, they’ll continue to be angry until Bioware gets moving and makes a better freakin’ ending. And with many more outcomes, depending on your progress in the game series.

Have you made agreements with the mercenaries? Have them send troops (and mechs) into battle for you.
Saved the Rachni queen? Get some Rachni to fight with you in the final push.
All squad mates survived in Mass Effect 2? Have the survivors of ME3 fight along side you.
Destroyed the collector base? Have weaker Cerberus forces to fight against.
/Spoiler/ Cured the Genophage? Have a ton of Krogan kick some reaper ass! /Spoiler end/
/Spoiler/ United the Geth and the Quarians? Send down some Geth ships and Quarian engineers to fuck some shit up! /Spoiler end/

The list goes on, and I can’t think of all possible scenarios, but you see the potential for some massive diversity, and that potential is LOST the moment you set foot on Earth again. There is no diversity, there is no special outcome, there are THREE endings to choose from regardless of how well you did, and that’s what makes people unhappy.

If all you people felt at the end was dissapointment and anger then you people OBVIOUSLY weren’t following the story…

Sad.

Because it’s over. There’s nothing more and I wanted to see more of Shepard and his crew, but thats just not how it works, that’s not what happens.
It’s kind of what I felt when I was done with Deus Ex. I wanted more.

In short, people should see ME3 as an ending, not just the last hour but the entire game as an ending to the trilogy and it was narrated, told and acted out really well for that matter and it even improved. When people come with claims that the game has been “dumbed” down, I just shrug them off. The reason -I- play ME at all or any Bioware game is soleley because of the story. 3rd person shooter are one of my least favourite genre’s and if it wasn’t for an excellentley narrated interactive story I wouldn’t play it at all. People REALLY overreact about the ‘ending’ and it wasn’t that bad, people should respect the author for the works rather than being pissed about things not working out their way.

Not as short as I thought but I hope I managed to get my point across.