Mass Effect 3 Review
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It is worth noting that the renegade options have generally matured a bit. Previously renegade choices were random acts of violence (such as this defenestration), or killing an NPC you just met for the greater good. The renegade choice in the Tuchanka story line involves you literally shooting a likeable NPC in the back, and potentially having the betrayal blow up horribly in your face if Wrex is around to find out. Having party members mention 'shame that Mordin had to die curing the Genophage' knowing you shot him to ensure it remained uncured was much more emotionally engaging that their canned tragedy routines.
There are other cases of similar complexity where the C&C shines. Resolving the conflict between the Quarian and the Geth is one example, talking down Ash/Kaidan at the council coup another. This sort of thing has only really been matched by Alpha Protocol, and I wish other games joined in.
Sadly, it isn't all that good, and the 'Bioware choices' which lead to at-best-cosmetically-different outcomes are out in force. If a party member died in previous installments, their role will be replaced by a functionally (and often word-perfect) equivalent stunt double: Mordin gets replaced with a scientist Salarian, Grunt with another Krogan Leader, Jack with a leader of biotic students, Tali with another Quarian Geth expert, etc. Supposedly important plot decisions count for little: destroy the Collector base and Cerberus still 'recovers' the human reaper and hangs it up in their headquarters, kill the Rachni queen and you still meet another Rachni queen 'created' by the Reapers, get Anderson to be councillor and Udina takes over the role anyway. And so on. It got to the point that whenever I saw an interesting little wrinkle in the game it made me wonder 'how would things have turned out differently?' I reminded myself that, in all likelihood, the difference would have been cosmetic. There are only so many times you can offer illusory choice before you prejudice the audience against you.
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However, the (deserved) fracas over the shoddy ending should not distract from the fact the story is shoddy throughout. This isn't a plot that was ruined in the last ten minutes - rather, it serves as fitting capstone to a trilogy that has see-sawed from the artless (ME1) via the absurd (ME2) to collapsing under the weight of both (ME3). At nigh-every stage in the trilogy Bioware has gone for the cheap way out: about grabbing some 'AWESOME!' sounding epic idea and crowbarring it in - to hell with continuity, a cast of clichés and rip-offs and smothering most of their original ones in cloying romance-scene fanservice and wangst, the fake choices and pseudo-agency, and tacky over-done cinematics in lieu of genuine 'emotional engagement'. The isolated touches of brilliance (hell, competence) just aren't enough to carry the rest.
