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Dec. 2nd, 2012 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geebsFinally beat the story in AC3. So in the end, it comes down to a choice (well, not that you get to choose, Desmond decides things for himself). He can free Juno, which Minerva warns will be worse than letting the Earth get destroyed, or just let the disaster pass. So what happens if he chooses the latter? Juno tells Minerva to show Desmond, and while Desmond and the gang would be safe where they currently are, the rest of the earth will get fried by the solar flare and die in earthquakes and volcanic eruption. This won't wipe out everyone, and when Desmond emerges, he will become a great leader and symbol to the survivors. Which sounds fine, but apparently it is guaranteed that once he dies that his followers will become zealots who enslave the rest of the Earth and kill anyone who disagrees with them.
Now, Desmond has no idea what bad things will happen when he frees Juno (which will also kill him instantly), but he's confident people will find a way to stop her. At the very least, freeing her will at least save the rest of the planet. Sure, they may quickly become slaves of a god-like being, but I think in Desmond's mind, at least they will be alive to try and figure out how to free themselves from those shackles. So, he opts to free Juno.
She indeed saves the world, but we're left with an ominous cliffhanger, wondering what will happen now that she's free.
I do recall reading in the forums some people were angry and comparing the ending to ME3's ending, which having seen the ending, those people are idiots. Because there's none of what made the original ME3 ending sucky. Yes, like ME3, the protagonist dies, but that's not what was wrong with the original ME3 ending. Sure, it sucks that the character you're playing doesn't live, but Desmond made a choice, to sacrifice himself lest the world get slaughtered and the survivors create an evil new regime in his name. Now, he doesn't know if freeing Juno is better or worse, but he's willing to gamble.
ME3 had a similar theme, Shephard sacrifices himself/herself- either to destroy the reapers, or control them, or induce "synthesis". Now I think the reason the original ending was bad not because Shephard dies, but because for everything you do, all the ending is is the lights on the Reapers changing colors (depending on which ending you choose) and a very confusing scene where the Normandy crashes, somewhere. So its like, okay, it didn't matter if you saved this race or this character, you get this short, crappy, confusing ending which any developer should know better. I can see people feeling insulted, because this was an epic story spanning three games, and they phone the ending in, people had a right to be mad.
They remedied the situation a little with the extended cut DLC. It improves things by at least showing what happens to everyone, so at least your choices matter a little more. More importantly, it makes things a little clearer. I think the new ending is definitely less frustrating, but given the epic scale of the game, I can see people wanting more than a series of storyboards and a voice over explaining what happened. What, the game is too cheap to spring for some worthy cutscenes?
But I digress, the AC ending is fine. Its a conclusion for the protagonist (Desmond), which may not be the conclusion people wanted, but its fleshed out, which is why the comparisons to the original ME ending is unfair. I think people just like to whine.
Now, Desmond has no idea what bad things will happen when he frees Juno (which will also kill him instantly), but he's confident people will find a way to stop her. At the very least, freeing her will at least save the rest of the planet. Sure, they may quickly become slaves of a god-like being, but I think in Desmond's mind, at least they will be alive to try and figure out how to free themselves from those shackles. So, he opts to free Juno.
She indeed saves the world, but we're left with an ominous cliffhanger, wondering what will happen now that she's free.
I do recall reading in the forums some people were angry and comparing the ending to ME3's ending, which having seen the ending, those people are idiots. Because there's none of what made the original ME3 ending sucky. Yes, like ME3, the protagonist dies, but that's not what was wrong with the original ME3 ending. Sure, it sucks that the character you're playing doesn't live, but Desmond made a choice, to sacrifice himself lest the world get slaughtered and the survivors create an evil new regime in his name. Now, he doesn't know if freeing Juno is better or worse, but he's willing to gamble.
ME3 had a similar theme, Shephard sacrifices himself/herself- either to destroy the reapers, or control them, or induce "synthesis". Now I think the reason the original ending was bad not because Shephard dies, but because for everything you do, all the ending is is the lights on the Reapers changing colors (depending on which ending you choose) and a very confusing scene where the Normandy crashes, somewhere. So its like, okay, it didn't matter if you saved this race or this character, you get this short, crappy, confusing ending which any developer should know better. I can see people feeling insulted, because this was an epic story spanning three games, and they phone the ending in, people had a right to be mad.
They remedied the situation a little with the extended cut DLC. It improves things by at least showing what happens to everyone, so at least your choices matter a little more. More importantly, it makes things a little clearer. I think the new ending is definitely less frustrating, but given the epic scale of the game, I can see people wanting more than a series of storyboards and a voice over explaining what happened. What, the game is too cheap to spring for some worthy cutscenes?
But I digress, the AC ending is fine. Its a conclusion for the protagonist (Desmond), which may not be the conclusion people wanted, but its fleshed out, which is why the comparisons to the original ME ending is unfair. I think people just like to whine.
