This will be a short article, as it’s not my place to ruin this re-imagining of the ending to Mass Effect 3. Everyone who is a big fan of the Mass Effect franchise has been waiting for today with anticipation and a little anxiety.

Bioware promised that questions would be answered and the concerns of gamers would be sated.

Mass Effect 3 – Extended Cut was released as free DLC today. If you have Mass Effect 3, I suggest you download this DLC as soon as you can. Just be prepared for a long download. The extended cut is just over 1.6 GB in size for the XBox 360.

After just playing through the ending of Mass Effect 3 once again, I can tell you that the Extended Cut does have some impact. Once again, I played through the game’s Synthesis ending and noticed a number of additions.

Prior to making your choice of which of the game’s three endings you would embark on, there are more dialogue choices, giving you a fuller explanation of exactly what each choice means. Also, the descriptions seem to be entirely re-scripted and easier to understand.

You will notice an addition after the infamous crash landing scene at the end of the game as well. Normally, this part of the ending would go directly into the credits. Now, there is a more in-depth ending describing what happened to many of the alien races and honouring your fallen comrades.

The ME3 Ending

So… we’re not playing tether cat?

In the very first episode of GameOn, I joked in the segment of Killing Time with Kyle Born about what I actually wanted to see in the Mass Effect 3 ending. Many of the comments that I made are actually addressed.

KROGAN BABIES!

Having seen only one ending, I cannot tell you how well the other endings are affected or how well choices outside of the total paragon path are reflected. That is something I will have to investigate when I have more time on my hands.

That being said, I can clearly see the effort being put into this by Bioware. How fans already disgruntled by the ending as it is will react is the next question.

Cupcake protest

More cupcakes anyone?

What’s your thoughts? Did you enjoy the Extended Cut of Mass Effect 3? Do you feel that enough effort has been put into this re-imagining of a universally hated ending?

 

the author

Jeff Johnson is a Canadian journalist and the host of GameOn here at GameNTrain. He was born in Ontario, but moved to British Columbia to learn what it's like to be attacked by deer on a regular basis. If you've got an idea for a feature story on GameOn or would like to be featured as a contibutor, simply e-mail gameon@gamentrain.com. You can also find Jeff on Google+ at http://www.gplus.to/jeffjohnsongnt

  • http://www.facebook.com/garrett.simpson.5 Garrett Simpson

    Here is hoping for the best!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sean-OConnor/68135372 Sean O’Connor

    I challenge your assertion that the original ending was universally hated. It definitely caused a backlash, but I’m not sure that the ending(s) themselves were bad, but rather that it failed to deliver on the promise of the series main mechanic (to the potential that they had sold). I enjoyed the endings in-and-of themselves, but did feel other than the main idea, the cinematics were essentially the same with a slightly different coat of paint (something they corrected somewhat in the extended version). But for a game that hyped itself so much on choice and the consequences of those choices, you were more or less pigeonholed into the same ending at the end.

    The execution of multiple endings (Hardly a new concept in gaming) has been done better in the past, and it’s a shame that a game that strove to take choice in gaming to new heights (and did in some areas), ultimately took several steps backwards when it came to showing you vastly different outcomes based on the sum of 3 games worth of choices.