(Spoilers…Obviously)
When I booted up Mass Effect 3 this morning, the first thing I did was check the multiplayer store and see if my Commendation and Victory packs had come in yet. (I’m hoping to upgrade my Valiant). That should tell you everything you need to know about my hopes for the Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut DLC.
I’ve since played through the ending from Cronos Station, as well as re-starting the ending from inside the Citadel, and I’ve watched the other endings posted to YouTube. And all I can think of, now that we’ve officially been given our ending is: What was the point? BioWare made a large stink about artistic integrity and standing by their product when the controversy first broke. When they realized that fans weren’t just going to let them be, they announced they would be adding to the ending, which made those who were fine with the ending angry that BioWare was caving in to fan pressure. Which is an argument I can understand. If video games are ever going to be considered art, we need to give those who develop video games room to take risks without jumping down their throats. And it shows a tremendous amount of interaction with their community that BioWare even acknowledged fan anger and promised to fix the plot holes and provide closure. To their credit, it was great seeing my crew still alive and able to leave that stupid jungle planet that they were stuck on. However, having now seen all 3 endings as well as the “secret ending,” I can point to exactly 1 of the numerous plot holes that has been patched (why Joker left the battle at the Citadel), and seeing my crew alive and well was the only portion of the closure sequence that I actually gave a damn about.
My friend described his feelings toward BioWare best. He said, “I feel like Carlos Mencia, talking to Kanye West in South Park. ‘C’mon man…just get it!’” Despite making the new ending, BioWare just doesn’t seem to get it. Now is not the time for ambiguity, BioWare. How is my Shepherd still magically alive at the end of the game and you still don’t expand on that? Why is the destroy option really the bad option, as it gets the most of my allies killed. How can I control the Reapers when basically everything in the galaxy says I can’t? How can what Saren was fighting for be the “best” option? Why, why, why? There are still so many questions left unanswered. Still so many plot holes that haven’t been filled. There’s still a giant, lurching, disorienting change in tone during that last 5 minutes, no matter how many lines you have Lance Henriksen record.
And there’s the biggest problem, BioWare: Why do it at all? You change no more than one or two plot points, mostly as lip service to the fans. You’ve somehow managed to piss off the people who wanted a new ending to the game, AND the people who wanted you to stay true to your artistic vision. Why spend all that time and money and marketing on something that doesn’t fundamentally change the ending, but still manages to make people angry on both sides? And why go to the trouble to release it once the controversy has mostly died down? Are you trying to re-open that can of worms? I hope you realize that largely because EA bet most of the farm on several of YOUR games, they are in the crapper. The day-one DLC and ending controversies on ME3, Dragon Age 2 being what amounted to a $60 filler for the gap between 1 and 3, and the Old Republic hemorrhaging players because they’ve lost interest. Within the last year EA has lost 60% of it’s share price, and it’s no secret that BioWare has been a big cause of that. Don’t you get that, BioWare?
With this end of this article, I am officially over Mass Effect as a franchise. You may say that another game could be in the works, but really, despite all your talk of artistic vision and fan acknowledgement, you can’t possibly justify your business decisions, either to your fans or to the company that’s bankrolling you. And if you keep this up, you may just be another name added to EA’s ever growing list of ex-developers.
C’mon, BioWare…Just Get It.
I think the new extended cut endings was great and probably what the ending should have been originally. Considering all the negative feedback and publicity Bioware has gotten they still did what they could to try and please fans without having to completely change their original endings which weren’t the best but not as bad as people were claiming. Now to Biowares defense about there still being unanswered questions or loopholes as you called it you ever stop to think that maybe the reason for sherpard to still alive and for some questions to still be there is to leave the possiablity of another mass effect in the future with shepard alive and later on if they decided to continue the saga they could and then at that point explain more about how he survived and what happened. Maybe I’m wrong but how many final games or movies were there supose to be just thst the final one but then years later somehow there’s another and if you pay attention theres always an ending that is somewhat short or unfinished to the point that it leaves you with questions and hope that there will more and that it wasn’t the final game or movie of that series or saga. At least thats i how feel and thats what I’ve noticed anyways and for that reason I expected the kind of ending mass effect 3 got when I heard it would be the final one. I really hope I’m right and Bioware releases another mass effect with Shepard in the future either way I’m behind bioware 100 percent and think you are all being abit hard on them and are not keeping an open mind about all this.
Thanks for your feedback, Paulo. I actually agree with you to a point. I wrote this in the throes of desperately hoping for a changed ending, and being disappointed. Looking back, I really gave more guff than BioWare deserves with this post. I really do appreciate that they took the time to give the fans some more closure, especially for free with DLC. And it does show a good deal of fan service that they cared enough to respond to the backlash.
That being said, I think your hope for another game starring Commander Shepard is misplaced. BioWare stated time and again that this was the conclusion of Shepard’s story, and 3 of the 4 new endings make that clear. That’s why I feel the ambiguity of the Destroy ending is completely unwarranted. Looking at the game as a whole, I still feel like the endings are full of missed opportunities, but it is still a very enjoyable game.
Thanks for calling me out. Objective journalism, even in an opinion piece, should never be written from pure emotion.