Tag: Paragon

Aligned Narrative – The Mass Effect 3 Endings

A couple of weeks ago I spoke about the issues in Mass Effect 3’s storytelling, primarily how bad its characterisation was. I’ve been playing the game since Extra Life in November. I went through the first game on a Renegade playthrough and then got as far as I could in the second one before the charity event ended. I picked it up again when I launched the LawfulGeek channel and decided to complete the trilogy with my renegade FemShep, the one I lovingly call Darth FemShep.

I remember one of the issues people had with the endings was that the three doors didn’t exactly work for both “alignments.” Some said control didn’t work with a Paragon character, or that Synthesis didn’t work with a Renegade. Continue reading Aligned Narrative – The Mass Effect 3 Endings

Dropping The Pen – The Storytelling Flaws of Mass Effect 3

When people think of storytelling and Mass Effect 3, they immediately think of the highly controversial ending, where all your choices up to that point boil down to a three-door scenario: control, destruction and fusion. The endings themselves aren’t bad but they commit the serious crime of wrestling control away from you, making all your choices be in vain.

But we’re not here to talk about the endings because to be fair, that subject’s been beaten so much it’s no longer a dead horse, it’s an undead one. Instead what I’d like to focus on are the other often-ignored shortcomings in Mass Effect’s writing, be it general storytelling or characterisation. There are good things as well and I’ll make sure to mention them, of course. Continue reading Dropping The Pen – The Storytelling Flaws of Mass Effect 3