The Mass Effect Legendary Edition brought me back to March 2012, when the Internet exploded with screams of disgruntled people at the end of the trilogy which you can watch on F95zone. According to the players, the promised variability and the importance of decisions turned out to be zilch: the final screensaver was influenced only by the percentage of the galaxy’s combat readiness and the choice of three items in the dialogue wheel. The barrage of criticism was so great that BioWare was forced to make an official statement, and a few months later released the free Extended Cut DLC , which explains in more detail the further fate of the commander’s party members.
Some of the players were satisfied, but there was still an abundance of upset Shepard’s story. Nine years later, we will try to figure out what went wrong in the finale of the space opera, who is to blame and whether it could have been done better. And be careful with spoilers: there are a lot of them in the text.
Problems started before the release
First, let’s take a look at how the Mass Effect trilogy ended . Before the Expanded Edition, there were three endings:
- Annihilation (Red) – Shepard uses the Prothean Forge to destroy all synths in the galaxy, including the Reapers and himself.
- Control (“blue”) – Shepard enters into symbiosis with the Citadel, taking control of the Reapers, becoming a super-powerful artificial intelligence. The Commander’s organic shell dies.
- Synthesis (“green”) – Shepard sacrifices himself, starting the process of transformation of organic and synthetic structure throughout the galaxy. The cycle of the Harvest ends.
Players start and win
Already on March 8, 2012, just two days after the release, a vote was created on the BioWare forum demanding to add an alternative, fourth ending, which by the middle of 2016 received almost 14 thousand votes and 140 thousand views. At the same time, a group appeared on Facebook, calling on the developers to completely redo the final of Mass Effect 3 . Now the community has almost 50 thousand members.
On March 19, a post appeared in the official Mass Effect group on Facebook that the company did not intend to change the ending, especially after such successful sales (in the first month alone, the publisher shipped 3.5 million copies). And then he disappeared. A little later, another message was published , which said that the final decision in BioWare has not yet been made, and the previous statement was made by mistake : “… we actively take into account all player feedback and do not exclude any outcome of events. We continue to collect and study your feedback and have not made a decision on changing the ending . “
Apparently, back then, BioWare really did not have a clear position on the ending. While Casey Hudson defended the author’s vision and the team’s decisions, community managers assured users that the company would definitely do something about all this.
BioWare makes concessions
The free DLC Extended Cut , which threatened to close the holes in the plot, turned out to be controversial. Promises to radically alter the plot did not seem to sound, but, as sometimes happens, some fans have already presented the best possible option and were waiting for almost a revelation. “[The issue]” Expanded Edition “, in our opinion, will allow to achieve a balance between the answers, who want to get the players, and the artistic vision of the team for the final of the history of the Mass Effect » , – wrote Ray Muzyka . And Casey Hudson noted that “[the developers] have adjusted the priorities in the development of the game to make the ending more understandable and personal.”
Will there be new endings or DLCs in the future?
- No. BioWare is convinced of the team’s right to artistic vision for the Mass Effect ending . In the “Extended Version” the ending will be explained in more detail, but no additional DLC is planned for the ending.
What exactly will BioWare add to the ending?
- BioWare will expand on the existing Mass Effect 3 ending with additional cinematic scenes and an epilogue. The purpose of the new scenes is to bring some extra clarity to the ending of Mass Effect 3 .
Why are you releasing the Expanded Edition?
- While we remain dedicated and proud of our artistic vision for the game, we also understand that there are some fans out there who would like the ending of Mass Effect 3 to be clearer. The DLC will not add a new ending, it will only reveal in more detail the consequences of [the final choice] and answer questions about the ending of Commander Shepard’s story.
Finding the “true” ending
Be that as it may, even the “Extended Edition” could not heal the mental wounds of the players, so the fan theories and alternative endings, which appeared almost immediately after the release of the triquel, have not lost their popularity until now.
Already 9 March 2012 on the Something Awful forum appeared the post with the “original” ending of the trilogy authored by a leading writer of the first and second part of Mass Effect Drew Karpyshyn (Eldritch Blast 5e). The main plot twist in Karpishin ‘s version was Dark Energy – a component of the zero element used when using the mass effect. The use of element zero led to the rapid aging of stars, after which they turned into black holes, destroying entire planetary systems. The Reapers were looking for a way to stop the spread of Dark Energy:
Great deception
Ending epic sagas like Mass Effect is not easy. In principle, it is impossible to please everyone. Of course, there is always a banal variant with a happy ending, but let’s face it – this is cheating. Self-sacrifice is often the central theme of myths and legends, and when it comes to saving an entire galaxy, it becomes almost inevitable.
The problem of organics and synthetics raised in Mass Effect cannot be solved beautifully and rosy, because even the most advanced races of the galaxy could not find a way to overcome it. The options available in the game leave a huge leeway for events, and it seems that even BioWare itself does not know how to continue the story.
