Mass Effect 3 has the worst ending of any video game, of all time.

And it has 5 distinct ways to all be terrible! (For the record, I didn't even know there was internet-wide outrage about it until I actually did beat the game. Turns out I am not alone in my disgust.)

Let me say this straight out of the gate: There will be spoilers, and lots of them. Despite that, even as a fan of the series, you should still read this anyway.

Mass Effect is a franchise that's all about choice, all about how your decisions impact the larger galactic scene. We were introduced to things in the very first game that come into play in the very last one, and yet none of it has an impact on the ending.

They pull a Deus Ex Machina on you. You run into this God-type figure and are presented with various choices. Literally. BioWare decided to close out one of the most deeply personal, choice-ridden franchises of all time with a Select-An-Ending mechanic, none of which take into account the thousands of choices you have to make over the course of the series.

I am frankly hurt. I spent so much time thinking about if not actually playing the first two Mass Effect titles. I beat each of them 6 times, with various characters who reacted to various situations in different ways. It was an interactive narrative, one I really enjoyed. Obviously. I felt like the various squadmates in the game were real friends. Garrus in particular is one of my favorite game characters ever.

And the way it ended? I feel cheated. I've been cheated out of year's worth of plotting and deciding and growing attached to characters. Every ending sucked. There wasn't a single one which ends in a good feeling, not a damn one. All of them basically end with "galactic civilization is completely null and void now, thanks for playing!"

I can think of a zillion ways to improve the ending, too. Make Shepard die in a meaningful way, protecting the people he/she loves. Give me a run-down of what each of the surviving characters do after the war ends. Remove the entire God mechanic thrown in literally last moment and make it so the Crucible does what you think it should do leading up to that point. Anything, really, that doesn't feel like I wasted the last couple years of my life in anticipation for this climax.

I am officially done with BioWare. I hate to say it. They were literally my favorite game developers of all time. Planescape: Torment and the Baldur's Gate series? Masterpieces. Knights of the Old Republic? The first one is easily the greatest Star Wars game of all time. I even loved Jade Empire despite it's plot basically being a Chinese version of KotOR. The first two Mass Effect games changed my life. The first Dragon Age was brilliant.

Then Dragon Age 2 shat in the face of everyone who loved the first one, and Mass Effect 3 had to drop the single worst ending in video game history. It's a shame.