Having put nearly 300 hours into all 3 of these games...have to say that overall, this was one of the best RPG's I have EVER played. Amazing story, characters that I came to actually care for and about. There were many scenes where I sat here cheering and fist pumping after something VERY cool happened. ME3 actually had more of these than the previous 2 and for all of the game, I wanted to see this masterpiece end spectacularly. However, for me, the last 10 minutes of the game...just about took all the wind out of my sails. The ending was PURE WTF!?!?!?!!?!?! I don't know what the decision on this was, or even why it happened...but EA/Bioware created ending that I believe Bioware on their own would not have made. I may be wrong here, but the more I think about it, the endings sucked.

ME was/is a series in which the player is given choices, some trivial, some HARD, but you ALWAYS felt that your choices mattered. In the first 2 games, this was VERY TRUE. Every choice you made had a consequence...some small and some HUGE! Some of these were the driving force to me playing the first 2 adventures all the way through with 4 different characters...and it is because of these choices I have chosen to run my very 1st ME character through the 2nd game again, so that I can change what happened in the 3rd game. I have even created a 5th character to run through all 3 just for some of the other choices. This series is also about HOPE! Hope that if you struggle, if you continue to fight, to NEVER give up, to ALWAYS HOPE, to LIVE NOW...you will win out.

This game is a 10/10 for 99% of the time...the ending was a 2/10. On a small level I can see what they were doing...but those last 10 minutes...just plain SUCKED...there is no other way to say it. The ending to me felt rushed...it felt like someone had something they thought was cool, and got it tested only by fanboys of that decision maker. The ending failed and failed BADLY! For a series filled with choice and consequence to develop an ending that throws away ALL OF WHAT CAME PREVIOUSLY just felt wrong. The ending threw away every choice that you made previously and made almost everything you did in the game matter not.

I know that life is not all about happy endings, it can be about sacrifice, and it can be about tragedy...but the ending stole away HOPE...

Even Shepard's last words...seemed to plead this case, only to be ignored.

I am also disappointed in the romances...most of the romances in this game are with characters that you have already had romances with. Yet it felt as if you had to re-romance them again to feel as if the you HAD a relationship. Now I don't need sex in a game, but if you are going to have it and you are having romances, where is the romance language between the 2 that have this type of relationship. A character that I had been true with, throughout the first 2 games, actually asked me (AGAIN) on where she stood. I HAD to choose her again...then we didn't get busy until the end of the game (AGAIN?) WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?! I had already romanced her for the first 2 games, and I have to wait until nearly the end of the game to be able to spend any couple time with her again? It is like the main character forgot where the relationship stood...some of the characters I can understand this mechanic, but for some of the others, it just doesn't make ANY sense.

Now, having said all this, I have to say that it won't stop me from finishing my play-throughs with my other characters...but I am dissatisfied with how they ended this.

Though there is a slim glimmer of hope. DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK IF YOU HAVE YET TO PLAY AS IT IS A BIT SPOILER-LIKE Now keep in mind all of the image may be faked...but I hope not...

I certainly hope it's true. After I finished the game, I was compelled to search the web to figure out if anyone else was as irate as I was. I'll also refrain from any spoilers, but the ending really felt rushed, and contrived.

On top of that, unless you purchased and completed every single piece of DLC, you can't even achieve the best possible ending without playing the multiplayer to raise your galactic readiness level. I'm sure the multiplayer is great, but this has been a single player game since the first one came out in 2007. To force me to play multiplayer modes to achieve the best ending is a more than a bit of a slap in the face.

It's a shame too, because this is one of the best damn game series I've ever played. Throughout the ME series, the choices I made fleshed my character out into someone who felt alive, and that the decisions they made mattered. I never even started another character, or went back and tried to right all the wrongs, because everything that happened, good and bad, felt like it was for a purpose. To have EA/Bioware take that empowerment away in the closing moments, to make me feel like all those decisions were pointless... it's heartbreaking.

Actually, good news for you Irminsul, you only need raise your galactic strength (not sure what they call right now) above 5000 (or over 4800...differing articles state both numbers), which can be completed by doing all of the side missions prior to doing the last mission. If you do that, then you do not need to do the multiplayer to get the best endings.

I read the something similar, but my understanding is that what matters is your "effective" number. For example, I've done every available quest, and have 100% discovery in every galaxy that contains war assets. My military strength is almost 6900, but since my galactic readiness is 50% due to the fact that I have done no multiplayer, my "effective" military strength is 3400 and change.

According to what I've been reading, to get the best possible ending you need an EMS of 5,000 which would require MS of 10,000 without improving you galactic readiness. I watched a couple videos on youtube, and my ending is definitely missing at least one scene, which I won't mention due to the highly spoiler-ish nature.

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I played it once through, and played multiplayer and had a 74% readiness along with a 4600 strength. I got, what is commonly called the best/perfect ending...and really, after I thought it through, hated it. I can't believe that the company that was responsible for what can arguably be called the best game trilogy ever, go so far as to screw the ending so royally bad. How they could have made the last 10 minutes to invalidate 5 years of amazing gaming...by giving us, which is arguably the WORST ending I have ever seen in a game. Ugh...they have some 'splainin to dooooooooo.