I thought it was nicely foreshadowed by Legion's Loyalty mission from ME2; do you destroy or control? That choice always bothered me because I didn't like either option. Genocide or Brainwashing? Really, those are my options?

Now here we were, given that choice again. The two were even color-coded, as before, according to Renegade or Paragon options. Only this time there was also a middle ground. What does that middle ground lead to? No one knows... because no one had done it before.

All that said, the ending left me wanting to know what happened to my squad-mates. I'd gotten seriously involved with them over the course of three games... were they all now just stranded in the Sol system? Did Tali help bring about the restoration of Rannoch, only to have nearly the entire Quarian Race trapped with the Migrant Fleet over Earth when the Mass Relays blew? Did Wrex save the Krogan only to be trapped near a distant star? Did Miranda save her sister only to be separated from her forever? And what of my squad members who fought in London... Was Shepard the only survivor of that mission? Are Liara and Garrus dead in that final charge? All I know is that Joker and Edi escaped... good on them, I suppose, but what about everyone else?

Mass Effect is the first time a Game has done this for me, when I saw the ending as a brilliant bit of storytelling but was left unsatisfied by it. Like the mare-beating dream in Crime and Punishment; you can't help but see how brilliantly it is written, but that certainly does not mean that you enjoyed it.

If after-game DLC is released I'd like to have it show what happened to Shepard's team after the Relays exploded, an epilogue to close the stories of the other characters. My guess is that the destruction of the Relays leads to the next chapter in the Mass Effect Universe, which Bioware has always said was coming. The universe continues, though Shepard's story is over.

In any case, I will continue buying this and other Bioware games. Color me impressed... if sad about not getting more about characters I'd invested so much in.