Many players are frustrated with the lack of closure in addition to perhaps not liking the ending to the epic Shepard story arc. They have been very vocal about this, and Bioware has even responded to the gaming community promising a free DLC this summer that will provide better closure.
Some people have defended Bioware's decisions, and a blog post by one of Bioware's Doctors specifically talks about artistic license. However, I do feel that in video games, artistic license only goes so far.
The mass effect games made a killing off of being cinematic with fully voice acted dialogue and a very well written script. The ability to suspend disbelief was higher in the Mass Effect games than perhaps any other game in history. The politics, the combat, the emotional interactions all blended together in a couple of the best storytelling games ever made. But at its core, Mass Effect 1 and 2 are still ROLE playing games. Players loved being Shepard. Players loved acting out Shepard in their own way. In the end, players loved feeling like the Shepard story was one they created. This is the illusion of choice.
Make no mistake, the choices were mostly always an illusion. While there is some variation on the events that take place depending on choice, the overall arc remains the same. I knew this, yet loved Mass Effect 1 and 2 all the same - because I never felt that I was being tricked. Yes, the arc remained the same, but when a choice I make kills or saves a companion, it feels like a substantial shift in the direction of my Shepard's story.
That illusion of choice, or perhaps control, is gone by the Mass Effect 3 ending. So while Bioware may have a right to create and sell a game to their liking, they are ignoring what made this franchise great. One game won't destroy Bioware's reputation, but this isn't a movie that I can spend 2 hours watching, or a book I can read in a couple of afternoons. This is a character that I have worked tirelessly to become the hero I wanted him to be - and to take that away from me is the very definition of biting the hand that feeds.
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