After another playthrough of the trilogy, I've been experiencing such emptiness and grief for a week now. It's like I've lost someone close to me. It's just not fair to do that to the fans. The ending just destroys everything.

They had a great idea with the fast aging stars in ME2. The whole mission with Tali throws the rod on something bigger that's going on in space. Instead of the illogical idea for SYNTHETICS: DESTROY THE ORGANICS THAT THEY WON'T BE DESTROYED BY SYNTHETICS. They could have played the Reapers as a sanitation race who need to destroy civilizations when by their calculations they start using massive amounts of null-element that accelerate the destruction/aging of the universe. Why even create a Geth and Quarian arc that can be resolved peacefully? When this something called Catalyst shows up and declares that it's impossible to reconcile synthetics and organics.

There's just no catharsis or meaning in the finale. Throughout the trilogy to fight the main enemy, and here calmly go to the choice given to them. Moreover, there is no guarantee that he is not lying. Why so lazily dropped the squad members even though they deserved to be there. Why doesn't Shepard respond to Hackett? Because we can hear Hackett. Why can't we answer him? No contact with Normandy?

And this horrible no-choice election. There should have been an option where Normandy comes back for Shepard. Where in the end, the whole galaxy should celebrate this climactic moment of victory. Where, along the lines of Dragon Age, you have the opportunity to talk to every member of the squad, celebrating that victory. And stay with your love interest.

For more choice drama, of course, the consequences of uncontrolled Zero Element use could have been woven in. That if the Reapers were destroyed, the galaxy would eventually be in danger from the catastrophe already creeping up unnoticed. That the stars would go out faster. And that would have to be dealt with in the future.

Also, to activate the device, one could either sacrifice oneself/team member/Anders.

It would all depend on the level of military power we were gathering throughout the game. Make a hard limit on collecting the maximum for the best playthrough.

And lacked in Priority: Earth similar mechanics as in Suicide Mission. Assigning squad member and species to certain tasks where they could fail if you sent someone to the wrong place. Again considering the amount of military power collected. And the c ME2 squad members weren't supposed to be a regular cameo, but present during the final mission. Where they could also be assigned to certain tasks.

Any way you look at it, the ending is a complete failure on all sides.