There Will Be No New Mass Effect 3 Endings, Just A Tweaked One

12 years ago

April 6, 2012 at 1:55 am

The free downloadable extension to Mass Effect 3 will beef up the game’s current ending, but it will not include ending or change what happened in the current one, the game’s creators said today.

That information comes from a new post on the official blog of Mass Effect studio BioWare:

Are there going to be more/different endings or ending DLCs in the future?

No. BioWare strongly believes in the team’s artistic vision for the end of this arc of the Mass Effect franchise. The extended cut DLC will expand on the existing endings, but no further ending DLC is planned.

The “mini-FAQ” reiterates that the winter-scheduled DLC will add “additional cinematics and epilogue scenes to the existing ending sequences. The goal of these new scenes is to provide additional clarity and closure to Mass Effect 3.”

The studio says “the goal of the DLC is not to provide a new ending to the game, rather to offer fans additional context and answers to the end of Commander Shepard’s story.”

MASS EFFECT 3 EXTENDED CUT [BioWare Blog]

Comments

57 responses to “There Will Be No New Mass Effect 3 Endings, Just A Tweaked One”

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Sir Sam

April 6, 2012 at 8:23 am

Excellent. Good on Bioware for sticking to their creative guns. Sure the ending wasn’t amazing but it is the principle of the whole change the ending movement that gets me.

Reply
1. That Teemoa
  
  April 6, 2012 at 8:28 am
  
  But if the ending soured everyone’s experience with the game, isn’t it smarter to make it better?
  
  Reply
  1. MrBS
    
    April 6, 2012 at 8:30 am
    
    Nope. Not unless you look forward to all games ending with the guy getting the girl and saving the day because people love happy endings! Oh and puppies. Puppies everywhere.
    
    Reply
    1. That Teemoa
      
      April 6, 2012 at 8:39 am
      
      Why can’t you be rewarded with a happy ending if you fulfil all the requirements?
      
      Reply
      1. MrBS
        
        April 6, 2012 at 8:59 am
        
        …..because the guys who made the game say you cant? They have a vision for and ending that you may not like? It does happen you know.
        
        Google puppies. You’ll feel better.
      2. Sir Sam
        
        April 6, 2012 at 12:19 pm
        
        Spoilers to follow. The best stories don’t always have a happily ever after: Frodo has to leave Middle Earth, Anakin dies, Ned Stark is brutally betrayed, John Marston is killed, etc. I respect Biowares crestive choice to not give a happy puppies ending. Hopefully this ectended cut will explain some of the unresolved stuff people have noted below.
      3. Dunnowhathuh
        
        April 6, 2012 at 1:02 pm
        
        Sort of bad examples there. Frodo and Anakin live on in another plane of existence. The worlds they live in are also at peace. Ned Stark dies but so does every other character in that series, not to mention that series hasn’t ended yet.
      4. Sir.Sam
        
        April 6, 2012 at 5:54 pm
        
        And that is the point of the Mass Effect Endings. In all three, the Reapers are taken out of the game in some way and the cycle is broken, however it comes at a cost (as it does in LOTR, and Star Wars). In the early parts of Game of Thrones Ned is clearly painted as the ‘hero’.
        
        Anyway,regardless, my point is this; sometimes the best works of art don’t give a completely happy ending . Sometimes things have to give.
      5. SighEffect
        
        April 6, 2012 at 8:05 pm
        
        I keep seeing statements from Bioware about their “artistic vision” and people rallying to that – or a lot of support for the indoctrination theory.
        
        Fair enough I suppose – but this is how I felt about Bioware’s artistic vision in ME3: It was like playing “Dear Esther” (which is what I would classify as a consistent artistic experience) and then turning it into an FPS shooter for the last 10 minutes of the experience.
        
        Mass Effect was one thing throughout the entire series with branching pathways – then that ending. If we were funnelled down a linear story the whole way then the ending would (possibly) be more palatable. Bioware created a world where player decisions left them invested in the world and the outcome – a truly impressive feat – then essentially turned around and said that your investment amounts to nothing.
        
        Is it Bioware’s story to tell how they want? Sure – but given the uproar it is apparent that the majority were not happy with it. Do I want a ‘happily ever after’ ending? Yeah, I think so – or at least the option of it or at least a well explained ending with some variation between the choices.
        
        Whether something should be classified as “Art” is completely subjective based on appreciation – or lack thereof. If EA/Bioware want to call ME3’s ending art, then they should be prepared to accept the backlash from those that don’t share their definition of (good) art. The ‘star child,’ reapers that cull organics to avoid the ‘inevitable’ synthetics killing organics etc. is just bad writing to me – and that doesn’t make (good) art.
        
        For me, the ending killed my attachment / investment in the ME universe. They’ve lost me as a customer and I won’t be purchasing DLC considering my view on the ending is not a favourable one. That’s not ‘nerd rage’ – that’s me saying I don’t think there was a fair exchange of value for the purchase / experience and I’m not prepared to throw more money at something I didn’t enjoy.
      6. Cats
        
        April 7, 2012 at 8:54 pm
        
        “because the guys who made the game say you cant?”
        
        That doesn’t mean people have to like it or that it justifies what they did. Bioware’s lucky they annoyed people after releasing 3 games, not during the first or I don’t think they would have made much money.
      7. Lachlan
        
        April 6, 2012 at 9:43 am
        
        In regular games without choice, I think that the developer saying you can only have one ending is fine. But Mass Effect 1 and 2 were all about choice and consequence, and doing everything gave you the best ending. Now doing everything actually tricks you into getting the worst endings, because control and assimilate show shephard being mind controlled.
      8. Alinos
        
        April 6, 2012 at 9:43 am
        
        A happy ending isn’t the problem with the end to the ME3 series the countless moronic plot Giles are like technically half the galaxy should be wiped out from the relays destruction
        
        Why was joker flying away from the final battle.
        
        When did my crew suddenly manage to teleport to said ship after being right there with me before the final push.
        
        Why is it that the last chunk if the game is a linear corridor with 3 buttons at the end with war strength arbitrarily deciding what happens.
        
        Compared to ME2 final chapter the whole end sequence is a disappointment the fact that the endings are all Color variations and supposedly unhappy as opposed to the fact that for
        The most part they represent freedom for the races with no arbitrary cycle to dictate their future.
        
        Last I checked there isn’t any real well you failed the reapers won ending
      9. Daid
        
        April 6, 2012 at 10:00 am
        
        “””Why was joker flying away from the final battle.”””
        Same reason why people are running away in this scene
      10. Sam Timmins
        
        April 6, 2012 at 5:18 pm
        
        Explain how the squad and GF are on the Normandy in the three seconds he has, and how he managed to use a relay so quickly.
        
        In the time the blast takes, the relay would have barely warmed up.
      11. DogMan
        
        April 7, 2012 at 12:52 pm
        
        The Alpha Relay exploded like that because damaged by an asteroid and had a little melt down. The rest went out very differently so there’s no reason to assume the other Mass Relays would explode in the same way. If it was a side effect of the ‘waves’ it’s safe to say the waves drained up the majority of their energy and that there was nothing left to cause massive explosions. If they were self-destructing via any sort of protocol it’s safe to say they discharged safely before exploding rather than just focusing their energy into the explosion.
        
        Joker leaving is as simple as the retreat order being issued. After the failed push the battle is over. They don’t have more units to go down and make a second push, the Reapers are slaughtering their forces, and they’re clearly not going to get the Earth back. You can see the remaining forces fighting but they may just be buying time for the rest to escape (or defying orders, since the battle was pretty personal for a lot of them). From Joker’s point of view nobody made it onto the Citadel and it just went into giant laser mode, so the Reapers are probably about to unleash the power of some superweapon. That’s a pretty good reason to get out of town.
        The stuff with the crew memebers being on the Normandy is best chalked up to an error that comes with FMV technology, but it’s plausible to say that the Normandy swooped in and picked up the wounded. It’s the only ship in the fleet with the tech to pull it off, and the majority of the surviving wounded would be there. Cortez is dead (I think that’s standard for everyone) but we see the Normandy come down and pick people up midbattle at the start of the game.
        
        Mass Effect 2’s ending wasn’t much better. Mass Effect 2 had you fight a giant human Reaper and only gave you two choices. They really screwed with what the Reaper’s were during that game. The leadup was cool but the only way your crew were dying is if you chose to kill them. Personally I thought the ME3 leadup was cool too (even if it was a bit long), it was only when we hit the Citadel things went sour. The ME2 choices didn’t really matter until the next game.
        Don’t even get me started on Mass Effect 2 boxing you in with the blow it up or give it to Cerberus ending. Seriously, even Renegade Shepard’s would have said ‘you know, you’re a douche but this is some seriously important technology and thanks to the IFF the Normandy is the only ship that can get in here, so I might just give it to the Alliance’.
        
        I’ve got my share of problems with the ending, and Indoctrination Theory is really cool, but after the standard action-movie-last-minute-attempt-at-being-philosophical ending snapped everyone’s suspension of disbelief people started going berserk looking for plot holes. There’s a ton in there but so many of them are just cases of people not thinking things all the way through.
    2. 8000
      
      April 6, 2012 at 12:02 pm
      
      You’re being illogical. The beef was never about the ending being dark. Did anyone complain about Red Dead Redemption? No.
      
      The Mass Effect 3 ending was bad because it was rushed, used few assets, and ware poorly conceived as a literary/narrative device. It was bad — which is to say it was unsatisfying, cliche, and disappointing, not that it was dark or “sad.”
      
      Tragedy is awesome. I loved Braveheart.
      
      This was like learning that The Force is actually just the work of midi-chlorians, a type of golgi body in Luke Skywalker’s cells. It’s stupid. Stupid, disjointed, poorly conceived and disappointing.
      
      Dude — there’s no combat in the last HOUR of the game. NO FINAL BOSS. Because they ran out of time and cash, and the “game mechanics weren’t working well.”
      
      That’s not art. You can’t give the great big <> speech and then just have the bad guy not be interactive.
      
      Harbinger — the huge smacktalker from Arrival — just doesn’t even say one word? Is that artistic integrity? Or did they just have to cancel the level where you go inside him and fight it out, like was planned.
      
      Which do you think?
      
      I think that they didn’t want to spend the extra money to finish those levels, and they shipped the damn game with about HALF the playable missions as ME2.
      
      You think what you want.
      
      Reply
      1. losturtle
        
        April 6, 2012 at 8:37 pm
        
        Just for arguments’ sake (these aren’t necessarily my actual thoughts), could I not just say “it is art” because I thought the theme was adversity? Could I not just say the ending was fitting because we didn’t need an explanation for anything. It was Shepherd’s story and at the end of his/her journey we find there is no happy ending. No matter what we do we can’t change the world, we can only try. If you think of story like it’s binary then yeah, you’d probably hate it because x+y should equal z and as gamers we’ve been trained to accept reward. But in reality, regardless of what you thought about it, regardless of whether it was intended, it was an ending, the whole game was. We got to farewell the characters one last time before we met impossible odds head-on and we had an interesting question posed at the end. “How do we return to a destroyed universe?” Perhaps if this were told in a different medium those would be the questions we’d be asking instead of “why wasn’t I rewarded with everything i expected for my fleet percentage?” If I said all this and asked “could we please not have an extended ending?” (which is a far nicer way of verbalizing my thoughts than most) why am I not entitled to the same sort of concession people on the other side of the fence feel they should receive? This is what art is, art doesn’t mean the best, most satisfying story experience ever, it’s not a measure of quality.
        
        I have MANY misgivings about the ending and people are obviously free to express an opinion as they like but blind outrage will never fall to a calm and constructive discussion. As appreciators of what we want to be art, we need to take that on board. Mass Effect was a cool game but the ramifications of this outrage is potentially dangerous because this is a creative issue. It’s not fixing an exploit or a bug it’s adding/changing/manipulating something entirely subjective based on the power of the mob. My only fear is that developers and writers in the future will be less willing to go out on a limb and try something new or unexpected based on the reaction to Mass Effect 3.
    3. Sam
      
      April 6, 2012 at 2:04 pm
      
      This one time I asked a waiter to take my steak back because I asked for medium well done and it was very rare, but he responded with ‘No. If I take your steak back everyone else I ever serve will want theirs taken back until it’s done medium well.’
      
      Reply
      1. Sam
        
        April 6, 2012 at 2:05 pm
        
        This reply is meant to to MrBS up the top. I freaking hate this new site.
      2. Scott
        
        April 6, 2012 at 4:30 pm
        
        This is actually a true story. I asked for a medium rare steak but when I got it, it was under cooked so when I told the waiter he took it back and had the steak cooked some more but then it was ruined because it was touch and chewy.
    4. Sam
      
      April 6, 2012 at 2:06 pm
      
      This one time I asked a waiter to take my steak back because I asked for medium well done and it was very rare, but he responded with ‘No. If I take your steak back everyone else I ever serve will want theirs taken back until it’s done medium well.’
      
      Reply
      1. Sam
        
        April 6, 2012 at 2:07 pm
        
        Wow… failed again, well played kotaku reply buttons, well played indeed. Think I’ll just report these as spam, cbf.
2. Kharaide
  
  April 6, 2012 at 5:17 pm
  
  It is time my brothers we must destroy what we Love so that it cant be corrupted anymore !!!!! Burn It to the ground!!!!!!! They may take our Money but they will never take our Passion!!!!!!!!! Light the torches.. Prepare the gallows.. Bioware is not long for this world!!!!!!!
  
  Reply
3. John
  
  May 3, 2012 at 8:24 am
  
  I think the original ending is perfect. I think humans are becoming more lazy with there thinking. Example would you look at a picasso painting and ask him to change it just because majority of humans don’t understand them? All I am saying there has been remarkable story telling in this series. Why do you need an explanation? Fellini always told a story and left his audience make there own conculsions. Why can’t bioware do the same. Is it because people don’t except video games as a way to tell a saficated story? or is it that dumbing down of consumerism that tells ourself to accept things on a linear level? Stories are not always told like transformers. Some stories require you to think an be apart of the experience. If we keep damanding junk food we will eventual get fat. That is why I am pleased to see Casey Hudson, Joe Wright and a bunch of other story tellers are bringing the actually 4d experience to viewers. Also don’t give me that all your actions don’t effect your gameplay because it does and it effects your ending. (take off your glasses and look)
  
  Reply
ZenMarx

April 6, 2012 at 9:07 am

This is good. The ending would have made me far less bitter if it had of made sense…. I.e joker and the Normandy.

Reply
NoTheMama

April 6, 2012 at 9:24 am

Good for Bioware. They should add a ME Kinect dancing mini game in the dlc too, just too really shit people off! Mwhahaha!

Reply
EddardStark

April 6, 2012 at 9:39 am

Holy crap, shut the hell up you whiny man children. I got why you were mad at first, like I get it, wanted to see what happens to the characters, more conclusive and less philosophical/abstract for the low brow masses and your choices to have massive final impact, BUT, it’s been weeks now, build a bridge and get over it. Move on with your real lives. If their is still this pathetic whining post “dlc tweaked ending” I lose all hope in my hobbies community.

Reply
1. Sam Timmins
  
  April 6, 2012 at 9:47 am
  
  Yes, because starting with “you whiny man children” is so mature of you.
  
  Reply
2. 8000
  
  April 6, 2012 at 12:06 pm
  
  They possessive form of the word “hobby” is “hobby’s,” not “hobbies.”
  
  But thanks for playing. Your hobby might be happy with Duke Nukem and some other FPS rubbish, but those of us who prefer quality over quantity are pretty gutted.
  
  Once again a big dumb publisher has purchased an amazing developer, pushed out the original writers and reduced a franchise to slop. If that doesn’t bother you, then you’re part of the problem, mate.
  
  Reply
3. Sam
  
  April 6, 2012 at 1:59 pm
  
  Assuming we take the plot line to be the premises, and the endings to be the conclusion, the conlclusion doesn’t follow from the premises because all the plot holes make them invalid. And of course any philosohpical argument worth mulling over is either valid or at least challenging to decide where it goes wrong. So ME3 is either not at all philosophical, or a very piss poor example of philosophy.
  
  As for high brow, it seems to have evolved into a term people throw about whenever somebody didn’t ‘appreciate’ the same things as them.
  Oh you didn’t find the monkey flinging his shit at the zoo visitors? Must have been too high brow for you.
  
  Reply
  1. Sam
    
    April 6, 2012 at 2:00 pm
    
    visitors funny*
    
    Reply
  2. Scott
    
    April 6, 2012 at 4:34 pm
    
    Plot holes?
    
    Reply
Sam Timmins

April 6, 2012 at 9:49 am

Here’s a tip to those who are sick of news on this:

Ahem.

DON’T READ POSTS ON THIS. Are you dense?

Reply
1. MrBS
  
  April 6, 2012 at 10:00 am
  
  I hate you Luke.
  
  Reply
  1. Sam Timmins
    
    April 6, 2012 at 5:05 pm
    
    That’s a weird way to read a name reading S-A-M.
    
    Reply
2. Peacemaker
  
  April 6, 2012 at 12:40 pm
  
  +1
  
  totally agree. the ones complaining just show how much they are “whiny man children” for not allowing people to voice their opinions
  
  Reply
rikku45

April 6, 2012 at 10:32 am

Glad I got rid of the game before i finished it.

Reply
1. Sam Timmins
  
  April 6, 2012 at 5:23 pm
  
  Don’t skip the pre-Earth parts. Those are amazing. They just screwed the rest.
  
  Reply
mattroe

April 6, 2012 at 10:57 am

Good for BioWare. Happy to see they’re still going to tell the story they wanted to tell.

Reply
1. 8000
  
  April 6, 2012 at 12:10 pm
  
  If by “they” you mean EA and the replacement writers, then yes. I — and many of the other people complaining — wanted to see what the original writers put together, because it actually made sense.
  
  If this was the output of the same creator or same team –it’d be different. But this is like me buying Star Wars and then setting the next movie on modern day Earth. Just because you own the IP doesn’t mean the story is the story that the CREATOR wanted to tell.
  
  They messed it up, and they should be called out on it.
  
  Reply
  1. Scott
    
    April 6, 2012 at 4:43 pm
    
    You know that the writers alone are not in charge of the story right? Often, writers video games are charged translating the game director’s overall plot into the practical beats of the story.
    
    And personally, I enjoyed the ending. I don’t think people need to be ‘called’ out for choosing to tell a story. It’s OK to dislike a story, but it’s a bit on the nose to demand action be taken because something didn’t live up to your personal tastes.
    
    Reply
    1. Sam Timmins
      
      April 6, 2012 at 5:10 pm
      
      With games like this, it’s script THEN art and levels.
      
      Also, you may have been fine with the ending, but many are not for many reasons. If it was a tiny group, why would Kotaku and Bioware take this much notice and post about it this long?
      
      Reply
      1. Scott
        
        April 6, 2012 at 7:10 pm
        
        You’re wrong about script THEN art and levels.
        
        And I completely respect fans who didn’t like the ending, and I respect Bioware’s decision to respond to fans by adding additional content to the ending. My point was that Bioware doesn’t need to be called out like they disrespected or wronged people. They made an ending that people didn’t like, they don’t need to be called out for that.
Sam

April 6, 2012 at 11:00 am

All I wanted changed with the ending was the filling in of the countless plot holes, if they manage to pull it off well (as opposed to “A space wizard did it!”), I’ll be more than happy.

Reply
Femto

April 6, 2012 at 11:02 am

I don’t know if I’ll even bother replay ME3 after this news. I played EVERY side quest on EVERY Mass Effect only to be rewarded with a nonsensical ending. If the expanded ending is just going to shoehorn nonsense they may as well not even bother. I do love the Mass Effect series, they are among my all time favorite games. I’ll just have to remember the good times and try to forget how it ended…

Reply
James Mac

April 6, 2012 at 11:27 am

I’d like them to remove dependence on multiplayer or an IOS game for full readiness.

Reply
1. Peacemaker
  
  April 6, 2012 at 12:41 pm
  
  not gonna do that. one of the few aspects they claim make the MP look ‘integrated’ and not tacked on
  
  Reply
  1. Sam Timmins
    
    April 6, 2012 at 5:26 pm
    
    To be fair, the multi is okay. It has WAY MORE meaningful use when the player hops into the shoes of a soldier fighting for victory.
    
    Now that I’ve seen the victory, I stopped playing. That’s not a good sign.
    
    Reply
[Razor]

April 6, 2012 at 12:47 pm

You know, this is possible EXACTLY what the people wanted.

I don’t know how they’ll deal with Tali and Garrus starving to death, though.

Reply
1. Sam Timmins
  
  April 6, 2012 at 5:13 pm
  
  With a lot of fan rage, male and female.
  (Personally not deeply invested in the two beyond “Shep’s friends”, but I’d STILL be angry.)
  
  Reply
Dunnowhathuh

April 6, 2012 at 1:14 pm

Not sure I’ll bother with it to be honest. I’m guessing all this little epilogue is going to do is attempt to fill plot holes and possibly show you what happens to the world afterwards (though I don’t see how it matters, all three endings didn’t leave much room for much of anything, the galaxy is screwed, just in 1 of 3 different ways). The crappy ending is still there and the lack of satisfaction that your choices made any difference is still there. I wanted an overhaul of the ending but realistically, I knew it was never going to happen. Yes, I am also one of those people who wanted the rainbows and puppies ending, so that just adds another layer of can’t be arsed. No point in replaying something when you know disappointment waits at the end.

Reply
Sam

April 6, 2012 at 1:51 pm

So it’ll still be a horrible ending to the main plot of the third game, but will clarify some stuff about the other players involved?
Yeah not impressed, but then I was never really pushing for it to be changed, I thought it was the worst ending to a narrative I’ve seen, and was happy to leave it. I am in principle for the possibility of game endings being changed as they are in any narrative medium, but meh.
I think what annoys me most at this point is Bioware’s complete inability to admit they’re just wrong about some things, in the last few years they’ve been arrogant condescending bastards to their consumers, and in a lot of those cases it was entirely unwarranted. Good writers don’t defend bad endings.

Reply
1. Sam
  
  April 6, 2012 at 2:48 pm
  
  Actually, good writers won’t write bad endings.
  
  Reply
  1. Scott
    
    April 6, 2012 at 4:44 pm
    
    Your opinion doesn’t make it bad. If I enjoyed it, does that make it good?
    
    Reply
    1. Sam Timmins
      
      April 6, 2012 at 5:30 pm
      
      It just means you overlooked their mistakes. Starving aliens, cowardly Joker, firey relay death, teleporting squad members, synthetics that kill organics so synthetics won’t kill organics…
      
      Reply
Ahtaps

April 6, 2012 at 9:27 pm

Having just finished the game about 3 hours ago, I see why people are a little annoyed at Bioware. The ending seemed to be a mix bag of Assassin’s Creed forced combat grind followed by Deus Ex:HR’s pick an ending by pushing a button. At least DE:HR had a voice over explaining what happened after you pushed the button, and Assassin’s Creed had a boss fight (Even ME1 and 2 had final confrontations). It also reminded me how much I hated Half Life’s ending of make a binary choice and then fade to black.

I just want a bit more of an explanation of what happened in between Shepard making a decision and the Normandy crashing. Something I love about the Suikoden series is that there’s always a follow up about where the people you had gathered to your cause ended up after the final battle and there are 108 of them, surely Bioware can do something just as good with considerably less people…

Reply
TIM

April 7, 2012 at 1:38 pm

I thoroughly dislike the arguement that changing the ending compromises the game ‘s artistic vision when the ending is one massive deviation from three games worth of artistic vision.

Reply

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There Will Be No New Mass Effect 3 Endings, Just A Tweaked One

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57 responses to “There Will Be No New Mass Effect 3 Endings, Just A Tweaked One”

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