MASS EFFECT 3
For five years, with two games in the series under its belt, BioWare insisted every chance it got that the Mass Effect trilogy would always put choice and consequence first. The expectation, based on that firm insistence, was that while wrapping up the trilogy with Mass Effect 3, BioWare would take dozens upon dozens of widely divergent decisions from the first two games into account for players carrying over their save files and weave it all into the series’ conclusion. The divergencies would be drastic, the ways in which the story could end would differ in countless and varied ways. Of course, that’s not what happened. Mass Effect 3 has many, many strengths, but not only were the consequences of many past choices not nearly as meaningful as many had hoped, several key moments from past games had been entirely ignored. This was exemplified perfectly by the game’s ending, where the touted choice and consequence mechanics essentially came down to a rudimentary either/or moment where past decisions didn’t have much bearing at all, if any, while many major questions were also left unanswered- though at least the Extended Cut improved things by some degree.
