Mass Effect 3 - Why the Extended Cut can't fix everything

Joystiq's regular RPG column from Rowan Kaiser this week turns to the subject that keeps on giving, the Mass Effect 3 ending and and the Extended Cut:

BioWare's free response to the Mass Effect 3 ending hoopla, the "Extended Cut" add-on, was released this week. In many ways, it acts as a direct response to the most common criticisms of the ending. If your primary problems were that the ending choices weren't properly explained beforehand, or that it was unclear what happened to the universe and the specific characters after the climax, the "Extended Cut" will be a notable improvement. But it doesn't actually change the quality of the ending, it just adds more content.

More information.

…which is why I don't even bother downloading it. Mass Effect died with the ending of part 3 for me.

Oh, get over it.

Originally Posted by Thaurin
Oh, get over it.

The problem is BioWare, not its former fans/customers.

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Originally Posted by RPGFool
The problem is BioWare, not its former fans/customers.

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I agree.

At this point I have no reason to play ME 3, even though I played ME 1 & 2. Waited a year to play ME and 6 months for ME 2. It's bad enough they turned this into console crap, but with each episode it got more and more manipulative.

It's similar to Dues Ex 3 add on, which I probably will never play even though it was in the package from Steam. Why ruin the lore, just because they fixed the Boss fight. Now had they fixed ALL the Boss fights, then that might have been worth the lore break. Close call.

I'm over it… no point arguing over this anymore. I say R.I.P to ME series + Bioware. Yes, I do agree it's Bioware's fault, but oh well. What can you do?

I'm still a fan.. I thought the endings were a HUGE improvement over the former rushed versions.

Were they the perfect endings to the series? no… but they at least are all different now, and are well explained. They also leave the ME Universe in a state of repair, with hope of future games in the Universe.. as opposed to a state of hopeless chaos with no relays to speak of, and Krogan feasting on human beings for lunch on Earth.

Originally Posted by LongMuckDong
I'm still a fan.. I thought the endings were a HUGE improvement over the former rushed versions.

The worrying part is that something like the original was given the green light in the first place. Since going all console-action-awesome, BioWare had just story going for it. And after the insanity of DA2 writing and the nonsense of ME3 I wonder what the company has left that could possibly attract anyone to be a "fan".

Overall, I'd say ME3 is a high quality game though. Geth vs Quarians and the Genophage quests are excellent. The ending is fairly bad, but I hardly think it's reason enough to say goodbye to the whole company. There are still quite a few skilled people working there.

However, if they pull another DA2, I'll start being far more careful when buying BioWare games.

I said get over it! Grrrrrr!

Oh, you get over it

What, are you gonna make me??! Okay, I'm gone.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Overall, I'd say ME3 is a high quality game though. Geth vs Quarians and the Genophage quests are excellent. The ending is fairly bad, but I hardly think it's reason enough to say goodbye to the whole company. There are still quite a few skilled people working there.

Indeed some story arcs were excellent. But overall it lacked cohesion. And contradicted its own lore at every step. The entire series is just a long list of plot holes and logic failures. If you try to rationalize anything about what you're you're seeing on your monitor, your brain will hurt.

Let's look at (excellent) Genophage - all that writing went into it … when in fact you don't need the Krogans or Salarians. The Reapers are defeated via the deus ex machina God Kid, and the Krogans being on board or not, is completely irrelevant. Which was bugging me all the time I was on the 'unite the galaxy' mission - why is my Shepard doing this when Reapers cannot be defeated by conventional means? Am I just gathering races to shepherd them to the Reaper slaughterhouse? Then the games goes back on that lore and tells us that you can in fact take a Reaper down via a Thanix Cannon and even Thresher Maw, but the Krogans and Maws still can't help if you chose the refuse ending.

Sorry, but ME's story is broken at every level, with bits shining through here and there.

Well yes, the ending creates all sorts of problems. However, that doesn't really change the fact that the Genophage - as a stand alone quest line - is very entertaining, and quite impressive considering it spreads out across three whole games.


If BioWare can produce more content of that quality, they can still develop high quality games in the future.

I think most(not all)plot holes came in ME 3 and that part ruined what could have in terms of storyline been best sci-fi game.Still I think it's good story overall(dialog with sovereign in ME1 is one of my favorite moments RPGs in general)but I feel disappointed because huge potential wasted.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Well yes, the ending creates all sorts of problems. However, that doesn't really change the fact that the Genophage - as a stand alone quest line - is very entertaining, and quite impressive considering it spreads out across three whole games.


If BioWare can produce more content of that quality, they can still develop high quality games in the future.

What it means is that Patrick Weaks is one great writer out of seven, and should get a big pay hike and/or be given Mack Walters' job. But he won't. Partly because he was on the Penny Arcade forums a day or two after ME3's release, saying that he thought the endings were rubbish.

The main problem with ME3 (/ME2) is that someone (EA? delusional docs?) looked at ME1 and said 'too nerdy, too subtle, too abstract, too alien, not enough awesum sposhuns, not enough collar grabbing, not enough boobies, not enough … emotional engagement'.

So we get tons of focus on melee, multiplayer, explosions, cinematics. And the poor old story is left to one lonely writer to salvage (but who plays shooters for stories, anyway?), while the rest of it is so nonsensical and self contradictory it makes Spaceballs look like hard sci-fi.

I mean, organic sets up synthetic to stop synthetics killing organics, but synthetic decides instead to kill the organic and turn his juices into a giant killing machine to commit galactic genocide of other organics every 50k years. Until one dying human with a doomed fleet manages to politely ask the synthetic if he'd be kind enough to send down an elevator for him, and while he's at it, destroy all the killing machines. And the synthetic says hmmm, yes, OK, great idea why not… Inspirational. Tell me more stories BioWare.

Originally Posted by Gaxkang
Let's look at (excellent) Genophage - all that writing went into it … when in fact you don't need the Krogans or Salarians. The Reapers are defeated via the deus ex machina God Kid, and the Krogans being on board or not, is completely irrelevant. Which was bugging me all the time I was on the 'unite the galaxy' mission - why is my Shepard doing this when Reapers cannot be defeated by conventional means? Am I just gathering races to shepherd them to the Reaper slaughterhouse? Then the games goes back on that lore and tells us that you can in fact take a Reaper down via a Thanix Cannon and even Thresher Maw, but the Krogans and Maws still can't help if you chose the refuse ending.

The character's philosophy drives the story, not the player's philosophy. Shepard stated many times why he does this or that as when he tried to convince Saren, spoke head to head with Harbinger at the end of arrival or had a chat with Lyria at the end of the broker. Not 'my' Shepard. Simply Shepard.
All in all, Shepard acts the way she does because players want to play an exceptional character. And what Shepard does is what exceptional characters do.
And it was not possible to know before how the galaxy fate would be determined. Until the revelation, Shepard's exceptionalism and the attempts made sense.

Originally Posted by Gaxkang
(but who plays shooters for stories, anyway?)

Who plays video games for stories anyway?

You must have been as surprised as BW management by the ME3 endings controversy.

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