Mass Effect 3 focuses much of the main plot on building the Crucible as a weapon to use against the Reapers. Unfortunately, the way the Crucible was introduced and used generated a lot of hate among players, as it was obviously used as a deus ex machina plot device. However, with the feats Shepard and others perform throughout the series leading up to their last stand against the Reapers, the Crucible doesn’t seem to be the necessary weapon the game tries to convince players it should be.
The last game in the trilogy, Mass Effect 3, shows the Reapers attacking the Milky Way in full force, and the game’s NPCs and missions are designed to make them seem like a threat impossible to overcome with the means available to various militaries. In times of need, the galaxy’s inhabitants are able to find plans for a structure called the Crucible, which has a design that has been refined over several cycles in the hopes that it will eventually be used. It all seems quite convenient given the circumstances and its uses.
Mass Effect includes moments that show the Reapers can be defeated
With strategy and conventional weapons
Even before you start Mass Effect 3Shepard defeated Reapers. The first game ends with Shepard fighting Saren, who is being controlled by Sovereign, and during this process, Sovereign’s real Reaper shell is destroyed, effectively killing the first Reaper in the series. Then, Mass Effect 2 The Collector Base has a Reaper being built inside it that Shepard destroys, which counts as at least a partial Reaper kill. These circumstances may be a little unique compared to the actual Reaper War, but they’re still enough to show that the Reapers aren’t invincible.
Then, Mass Effect 3 begins, and the Reapers arrive in the Milky Way in full force, ready to continue this harvest cycle. Throughout the game, it is shown more than once that Milky Way species are able to defeat Reapers without the Crucibleand if it’s a galaxy-wide effort, then it’s feasible that they could put up a good fight against the Reapers, and possibly win through strategy and force alone, just like the Turians who had a stalemate against them in Palaven, taking down a a good number of them with the resources they had.
The crucible is not a satisfactory solution
It makes the series seem pointless
The Crucible left many players dissatisfied with Mass Effect 3is ending. In addition to being introduced only in ME3 and used as the perfect solution to this immense threatthe way it works doesn’t make much sense. It has the ability to control or destroy the Reapers, but it can also fuse synthetic and natural life forms so they can live in harmony. It’s a wide range of possibilities and doesn’t need a specific explanation on how it works, but some explanation would be nice. It’s simply very convenient.
Part of the issue is that making these big decisions that lead to Mass Effect 3possible endings seem like invalidate the choices and work Shepard put into his journey up to that point. With the extended cut, the ending isn’t as bad as it seemed upon release, but it still doesn’t seem to do justice to a journey as epic as Commander Shepard’s. Considering Shepard and others have been shown to be capable of taking down Reapers, this starts to feel like a substitute for full-blown war in the game.
The Crucible Should Have Been Replaced With a Story About Determination
The united galaxy
There are times when Mass Effect games where groups that may not be getting along have to put aside their differences for the greater good, and that should have been a bigger theme in ME3especially to replace the Crucible. It was the perfect setting for a story about different cultures coming together to defeat a threat that seems impossible to overcome. Shepard has beaten the odds more than once in the series, so it would be fitting, and would make collecting war resources rewarding if they decide whether the Reapers succeed or are defeated.
Mass Effect holds a special place in many gamers’ hearts, and it’s easy to feel like a hero when playing as Commander Shepard. This is why the existence of the Crucible seems to do the series more harm than good. Instead, having seen that the Reapers can be destroyed by other means, it would have been better to have War Assets decide which ending will be reached and how much damage will be done in the last battle of Mass Effect 3.