First I'll comment on the new "Reject" ending. I like the new ending and thought it was well done. I really liked how they made the ending work by using Liara's time capsule idea. Shepard, Liara and the rest still had a huge hand in the next cycle defeating the reapers so it still feels like a happy ending. I get the impression that in the next Mass Effect game Bioware may jump ahead a number of years in the future. If that's the case then it doesn't matter who survived the Battle for Earth. It also doesn't appear the races are gone anyway. The post-credits scene with the Star Gazer and child is different this time around. It depicts either an asari or a woman with her hair up in such a way that it sort of looks like an asari.
Next up is the Control (blue) ending. This ending is pretty good despite the ridiculous premise. I like how Shepard narrates it and has essentially become an immortal god being. Note, I cannot emphasize enough that it is still a dumb ending in the sense that it doesn't really make sense in the universe that has been established. Still, I thought it was done fairly well. It was kind of interesting seeing the reapers help rebuild.
I can also see why the Control ending is blue and Destruction is red. In the Destruction ending people (geth, EDI) do die as well as the reapers. With the reapers death, so to dies the the history of all the species they harvested and "preserved". Contrast that with the Control ending where the conflict immediately ends with no further loss of life (or knowledge) on either side. It seems a rather Paragon thing for Shepard to sacrifice her own life to bring peace to the galaxy.
Finally the Synthesis (green) ending. The end result of this choice is mostly the same as the Control ending, other than everyone being part synthetic now. EDI has a pretty touching narration over this ending, though, which I liked. I did notice a couple of differences in the scenes shown as well. At one point an unmasked quarian is shown speaking to a geth. I could not tell if the quarian was Tali or not, though. In another scene it shows Kasumi is standing holding hands with a hologram of her lover. I guess since she is now part synthetic she has better integration with his graybox or something, I'm not really sure. The scene was different than the other two endings which showed Kasumi sitting down.
I'm not sure why this is a green ending. At first I thought it was green because it combines elements of the red and blue endings. It definitely pulls from the blue ending with Shepard's sacrifice and the immediate end to conflict with no further loss of life or knowledge. I thought it would take it's red inspiration from forcing everyone into what are essentially new beings. However, after seeing the ending and hearing EDI's touching narration I don't really see any sort of Renegade action in this choice. Everybody seems to be happy and okay they are now part synthetic. EDI is very happy that she is now truly alive like everybody else.
I want to also note that the Synthesis ending is perhaps even more absurd in the context of the Mass Effect universe than the Control ending.
Overall I feel the extended endings are done fairly well. As I keep saying, I find the Control and Synthesis endings to be a poor fit for the Mass Effect universe. They rely too much on unexplained space magic and not enough on science fiction and pseudo-science the franchise is built upon. However, they are done fairly well when ignoring that. That still leaves one huge problem with the plot that will sadly never be addressed. Unfortunately it's a rather easy fix, too.
What is that problem? The Star Child, of course. First let's touch on why its existence is such an anathema. First, it comes out of nowhere even though it's a predictable plot twist. It was hinted at in the first game by some arbitrary planet's description but even still, it came out of nowhere. As I said, it is a rather predictable plot twist but I don't think many people expected Bioware to employ it because up until that point their writing (across most of their games, not just the Mass Effect games) was top notch.
The other major issue with the Star Child is it introduces a huge plot hole into the first game. The plot of Mass Effect 1 was to stop Saren and Sovereign from taking control of the Citadel and sending the signal that would trigger the reaper invasion. If the Star Child controls the reapers and the Citadel is part of the Star Child then it could have activated the signal itself. The search for the Conduit, Saren and Sovereign were all unnecessary.
It's pathetically easy to fix the Star Child problem, though There's already an established antagonist in the form of Harbinger. If Harbinger had used an avatar (Possess the corpse of the Illusive Man, perhaps?) then he could have provided the information about the reapers. Harbinger is already portrayed as the lead reaper since Mass Effect 2. It should have been him who speaks to Shepard at the end, not some Star Child out of left field.
Imagine how much better this would have worked. You make it to the control chamber, you shoot the Illusive Man and then an avatar of Harbinger shows up. He could either possess the Illusive Man or have some other humanoid form. Maybe Harbinger is controlling a synthetic form of the original race that created the reapers eons ago. An epic boss fight ensues. After Shepard defeats the avatar and opens the Citadel arms the Crucible connects as usual. At this point Harbinger is aware the cycle solution will no longer work. He then uses his avatar to explain to you what is currently explained by the Star Child. Harbinger gives you the choices (Presumably better choices that fit better...).
It makes so much more sense for Harbinger to provide all the answers. It also resolves several issues:
- It removes the Star Child plot twist that wasn't necessary.
- By removing the Star Child it removes the plot holes the Star Child's existence opens up in the series. Mass Effect 1 makes sense again.
- It let's Shepard have a final confrontation with a named antagonist who was set up all throughout the second game. I personally found it disappointing there was no final battle against Harbinger. I've wanted to see Shepard go up against Harbinger since Mass Effect 2.
- By using an established antagonistic the player is much more likely to accept the information. It's hard to accept information from a plot twist character introduced in the last 15 minutes of the game.
- The 3 original endings.
- The 3 enhanced endings.
- The new reject ending.