FTL should still function correctly. It's possible to still travel long distances, it'll just take a while.

Think Star Trek Voyager.

Plus the Protheans figured out how to create a miniaturised version of a relay. It's entirely possible from all of the data which will have been gathered from the relays, that a workable alternative or reproduction will emerge sooner or later.

[Edited by Skyheart, 3/10/2012 11:01:28 AM]

I pointed out it would take a long time to travel at FTL, but not impossible. The galaxy is already three-quarters crippled thanks to the Reapers, and almost every economy will be in tatters. After all of that, building a new economy and civilisation using FTL will be childs play. As for recreating the relays, like I said, it's already been done on a small scale.

I understand wanting a happy ending, but in my opinion it was silly to expect one. I mean... let's face it- an invasion by an impossibly advanced sentient machine race bent on the annihilation of all intelligent life in the galaxy. A process which has been carried out successfully countless times before. Did you think you'd just flip a switch and go home for tea and crumpets?

From the beginning I actually expected at least one of the endings to include the destruction of 99% of life, with Shepard leading a small group into hiding until the Reapers left. Maybe even giving his life to make sure that a handful of each race survived. The fact that BioWare wrote in every ending so that you "win" is in itself a miracle.

As for the "best" ending, I expected that to involve Shepard giving his life to destroy the reapers. Either way, a successful ending was always going to involve a huge sacrifice, and Shepard isn't the kind of man/woman who would let another make that sacrifice in his/her place. The fact that you can get a clip of him/her breathing, showing he/she survived is, again, far more than I expected.

So I suppose these expectations all add up to explain the fact that I'm not disappointed in the slightest in what I've (accidentally) read about the endings and why I don't understand any of the rage. That's just me I suppose.

I haven't finished the game yet, but I concur.

Mass Effect simply isn't grim enough to justify only a bad ending. Sure, people die and the story is good, but it was always about fixing it up and making sure 'that all's well that ends well'...

Bioware perhaps could 'fix' this by either giving one of the races a new technological advancement that lets them travel between systems (which they would then share with the other races) or somehow rebuild the relays or something with a similar function. Just my thoughts...

[Edited by yobo, 3/10/2012 11:50:08 AM]

Okay, I'll give you that one. Expecting a bad ending is one thing, but at least in a bad ending you'd know your squad was dead or something. It'd be nice to know what happened to them at least. Though it's pretty safe to assume they lived, just stranded somewhere.

It's kind of like Ash/Kaiden in ME2. The backlash at that single scene and their attitude towards you was probably worse than the rage I've seen for these endings.