Definitely an improvement over the original ending. All I was ever looking for was an epilogue, which was curiously absent in the original version. People went a little too overboard about the original ending, however. Still, it was nice to see the epilogue.
The IGN side missions youtube channel was swatted and the channel owner died in the accident.
Salvaged the ending, bringing it more in line with the other games. Still unsatisfying, but better than what it was before.
well.
if you are here, you know.
if you are here, you know.
I'm sure the original sucked, this wasn't that bad
I guess it makes the ending a little bit more plausible but the ending still feels dry
Essentially, BioWare got mad nobody liked their original ending so they made this "extended" version that band-aids over some common complaints while still keeping the overall structure intact.
Polishing a turd.
Polishing a turd.
It's an improvement. It's stil quite underwhelming but hey an improvement is an improvement.
Mass Effect series Review + Retrospective #3.1: Extended Cut
Oh boy. Finally going to talk about the ending. For as much praise as I gave to Mass Effect 3’s plot and storyline resolution (at least up to Thessia), this is the moment it pretty much falls apart. ME3 received an insane (and deserved) amount of backlash for its initial ending, and to be honest, this extended cut doesn’t do almost anything to remedy that.
It’s honestly hard to talk about, as everything that needs to be said has already been said countless times. If you were a Mass Effect fan in 2012, or a gaming fan online in general, you’ve seen it all already. The absolutely insulting “color choice” ending, the lack of any real closure for the characters you’ve come to love, the complete fumbling of the Reapers, the godawful post-credits scene (featuring an actual literal stock photograph), and the infamous “buy our DLC!” message immediately after seeing the worst ending you’ve ever seen in your life.
I don’t think that the original ending completely ruins the game. I think the high points of the game’s plot, specifically Tuchanka and Rannoch, are highs for the whole series, and I think the overall plot of ME3 is much better than ME2’s. However, I don’t think that this excuses how badly written and out-of-left-field the entire Citadel sequence is after Priority: Earth. The Starchild is an utterly baffling decision, and the fact that it cuts from your choice of space light color to a bizarre scene with the crashed Normandy on a random planet, to credits – is just as baffling.
I understand how difficult it must have been to write an ending for this massive trilogy, but the entire thing feels egregiously amateur. Drew Karpyshyn’s loss is felt throughout the entire game, but most blatantly here. Drew probably would’ve given us something a little more generic and trope-y, but certainly would’ve been better than this.
That leads into the actual extended cut. I don’t know, man. This extended cut feels so insincere and like they were just bullied into doing something from gamers and game journalists alike. They slapped together some Fallout 3-style slideshow endings with narration that vaguely give you an idea of what happened to some of the characters, but they’re so brief they really feel meaningless. It feels rushed out the door to in order to quell some of the backlash.
The Refusal ending added by this is a pretty funny joke ending – reject the Starchild and watch the galaxy get obliterated by the Reapers – but good to see where Bioware’s priorities were: adding a joke ending instead of fixing their fundamentally flawed ending. In short: yes, the ending is as bad as people make it out to be, I just don’t think it completely ruins the ME3 experience.
My heart goes out to my console brethren, but for my fellow PC players – for your next playthrough, or even first, please use Audemus’ Happy Ending Mod (AHEM). It is a fan-made reworked ending for ME3, that completely eliminates the Starchild character, removes the color choice (making it Destroy by default, the only one that makes sense), removes the nonsense scenes like the Mass Relays being destroyed, and gives a bonus scene with your Shepard and their love interest. It feels professionally made, flows perfectly, and integrates elements from the vanilla ending, extended cut, and new fanmade moments. It does feel a bit rushed, but modders can only work so much magic. Give this one a shot next time you play through ME3, it takes off some of the disappointment.
Oh boy. Finally going to talk about the ending. For as much praise as I gave to Mass Effect 3’s plot and storyline resolution (at least up to Thessia), this is the moment it pretty much falls apart. ME3 received an insane (and deserved) amount of backlash for its initial ending, and to be honest, this extended cut doesn’t do almost anything to remedy that.
It’s honestly hard to talk about, as everything that needs to be said has already been said countless times. If you were a Mass Effect fan in 2012, or a gaming fan online in general, you’ve seen it all already. The absolutely insulting “color choice” ending, the lack of any real closure for the characters you’ve come to love, the complete fumbling of the Reapers, the godawful post-credits scene (featuring an actual literal stock photograph), and the infamous “buy our DLC!” message immediately after seeing the worst ending you’ve ever seen in your life.
I don’t think that the original ending completely ruins the game. I think the high points of the game’s plot, specifically Tuchanka and Rannoch, are highs for the whole series, and I think the overall plot of ME3 is much better than ME2’s. However, I don’t think that this excuses how badly written and out-of-left-field the entire Citadel sequence is after Priority: Earth. The Starchild is an utterly baffling decision, and the fact that it cuts from your choice of space light color to a bizarre scene with the crashed Normandy on a random planet, to credits – is just as baffling.
I understand how difficult it must have been to write an ending for this massive trilogy, but the entire thing feels egregiously amateur. Drew Karpyshyn’s loss is felt throughout the entire game, but most blatantly here. Drew probably would’ve given us something a little more generic and trope-y, but certainly would’ve been better than this.
That leads into the actual extended cut. I don’t know, man. This extended cut feels so insincere and like they were just bullied into doing something from gamers and game journalists alike. They slapped together some Fallout 3-style slideshow endings with narration that vaguely give you an idea of what happened to some of the characters, but they’re so brief they really feel meaningless. It feels rushed out the door to in order to quell some of the backlash.
The Refusal ending added by this is a pretty funny joke ending – reject the Starchild and watch the galaxy get obliterated by the Reapers – but good to see where Bioware’s priorities were: adding a joke ending instead of fixing their fundamentally flawed ending. In short: yes, the ending is as bad as people make it out to be, I just don’t think it completely ruins the ME3 experience.
My heart goes out to my console brethren, but for my fellow PC players – for your next playthrough, or even first, please use Audemus’ Happy Ending Mod (AHEM). It is a fan-made reworked ending for ME3, that completely eliminates the Starchild character, removes the color choice (making it Destroy by default, the only one that makes sense), removes the nonsense scenes like the Mass Relays being destroyed, and gives a bonus scene with your Shepard and their love interest. It feels professionally made, flows perfectly, and integrates elements from the vanilla ending, extended cut, and new fanmade moments. It does feel a bit rushed, but modders can only work so much magic. Give this one a shot next time you play through ME3, it takes off some of the disappointment.