"As Mass Effect 3 is the end of the planned trilogy, the developers are not constrained by the necessity of allowing the story to diverge, yet also continue into the next chapter. This will result in a story that diverges into wildly different conclusions based on the player's actions in the first two chapters."
- Casey Hudson
"We wouldn't do it any other way. How could you go through all three campaigns playing as your Shepard and then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets?"
- Mike Gamble
The endings were better, but they were still shit. They were just... less shit, I guess.
The thing is, the extended endings really don't change anything - they give a tiny bit more closure and an explanation of what happens afterwards, but it's essentially just more of the same. The endings don't differ based on what your Shepard has done across the whole of the three games. You've still got a shoehorned and utterly senseless explanation for why the Reapers exist and what must be done about them - including some things that, for many Shepards, will directly and absolutely contradict things that they've seen and done across the course of their career.
If EA and Bioware had wanted to genuinely fix the endings, instead of appease gamers in the face of massive public outcry and their failing business strategies, they would have had to scrap the last two hours of the game and start from scratch. You may have noticed how War Assets are just a bar that fills up, instead of things of actual tangible value. If they wanted to make the final battle and the ending feel meaningful, the battle and the ending itself would have been like the Suicide Mission from Mass Effect 2 times a hundred - each choice you made throughout the course of all three games would have consequences in the final battle. Battallions of Krogan mowing through waves of Husks! Shepard's crew being able to skip a hard miniboss because a Turian sniper team destroys it for him! Rachni shock-troops tossing Marauders about with their weird tentacle things! Asari biotic commandos utterly wrecking shit! The Destiny Ascension bailing out a human fleet for a change and one-shotting a Reaper with its main gun! Shepard's treatment of characters throughout the course of the series determining how willing they are to stand by him when he needs them the most. Every choice he makes throughout all three games having some impact on things throughout the course of ME3 and the final battle.
The endings themselves should have been completely and wildly divergent. They're still pretty much all the same (society struggles, but rebuilds), except for the new one in which everybody dies - which is hardly optimal.
It was nice that they actually bothered to listen, but the problem's too deep to be fixed by a few extra cutscenes. Bioware is dead, and EA killed it.
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Topic: ME3 Extended Cut impressions [spoilers] (Read 2963 times)