5. "RE: Mass Effect Legendary Edition"
In response to message #4
>I have to admit, my problem with it was not so much that the ending is >sad (I kind of expected that going in) but that Shepard loses all >agency and the choice she makes doesn't matter. That choice doesn't >mean anything because there's no way to learn what each option >actually does until you take it and see the ending, so from Shepard's >perspective it's literally a wild-assed guess. Even after making the >choice you're not really fighting or winning anything; you're having a >heart to heart with Anderson while the Catalyst does it all.
And more to the point for me, you've spent the entire game getting hammered with loss and desperation and things falling apart on all fronts, trying to get a handful of refugees free and give the traumatized survivors a place to come apart in relative peace.
The ending is immaterial in the face of the fact that the game itself was emotionally shattering.