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Following an incredible backlash over the ending of Mass Effect 3,
BioWare promised last month that it would address the complaints of
those who were displeased with the way Commander Shepard's story came to
an end. The way in which it plans to do that was briefly outlined
today, although we won't be getting our hands on the solution for
another few months.
Put simply, there were two sides that most people could fall on in this
debate: Those who are upset with the ending and want a new one (or at
least more content) and those who believe BioWare should be free to do
what they want with their game's story (and therefore don't want a new
ending). As intimated
last month, BioWare is going for a middle ground between the two. It
today announced plans to release a downloadable content pack called Mass
Effect 3: Extended Cut. The goal of it is to provide additional closure
for fans who are seeking it after pouring in dozens of hours across the
Mass Effect games.
It's important to make clear that this is not a new ending for
the game. Instead, the DLC is described as being comprised of
"additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes" meant to "give fans
seeking further clarity to the ending of Mass Effect 3 deeper insights
into how their personal journey concludes." That's as specific as
BioWare would get, and that is probably for the best as saying any more
could potentially spoil the game for those who have yet to finish it or
could be cause for further complaints. The best way to evaluate this
solution is undoubtedly going to be experiencing it for yourself.
"We are all incredibly proud of Mass Effect 3 and the work done by Casey
Hudson and team," said BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka in a press
release sent out today. "Since launch, we have had time to listen to the
feedback from our most passionate fans and we are responding. With the
Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut we think we have struck a good balance in
delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the
team's artistic vision for the end of this story arc in the Mass Effect
universe."
"Are we proud of the game we made and the team that made it?" reads part of an FAQ
on BioWare's website. "Hell yes. Are we going to change the ending of
the game? No. Do we appreciate the passion and listen to the feedback
delivered to us by our fans? Very much so and we are responding."
Checking out the new content won't cost you a dime; the DLC is going to
be made available for free upon release this summer. There were cynics
who believed publisher Electronic Arts
deliberately released an incomplete ending so that the real deal could
be sold to gamers as DLC later. This would appear to shoot down that
notion, although there is one unfortunate group that will be unable to
take in the Extended Cut even with it being free, and that is those who
are without an Internet console.
As far as we know, the only way this DLC will be distributed is through
Origin/Xbox Live/PlayStation Network, something that not everyone who
purchased Mass Effect 3 has access to. And since the game's story is not
especially linear, simply looking up video of the DLC on YouTube would
prove to be an ineffective way of consuming it. Besides how jarring it
would be to do so given how the other 100-plus hours of Mass Effect's
story unfolded for that player, a video on YouTube would more than
likely not reflect the decisions that person's Shepard made over the
course of the series.
Unfortunate as that may be, would it be preferable that no one gets the
new content? In previous console generations, doing something like this
would not have been possible outside the release of an expansion pack,
and even that would have been less effective due to the cost and
inability to transfer your save game. At least now a significant chunk
of the audience can be catered to (for free) in a way meant to address
fan complaints. Chances are there will still be those who are
unsatisfied with the answ
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