Even after staying up to watch a livestream and read some discussions about the Extended Cut material, I decided that before giving my own commentary, I should play it for myself. So I did, starting just before the Cerberus base.
Overall impression: I'm not sure. (Alternatively: I . . . don't know.)
There were definite improvements made.
- It was explained how your squaddies made it from your side to being onboard the Normandy.
- You were able to question the Catalyst and get more complete information on the Catalyst's choices.
- You were able to completely reject the Catalyst's choices.
- An epilogue was provided.
- The final message was changed from a DLC pitch.
Each of these elements had some things I would disagree with, but they are mostly on the order of nitpicks. (Why didn't we see all the major races' homeworlds in all endings? Why did the Krogan get like half the slides? Why didn't I get to see Tali with her house? Grumble.)
When faced with the ending choice, I paused and thought for long moments.
- Rejecting the Catalyst, while interesting, leads to a short game over with victory at some point in the future (possibly just the next cycle). That's good, but I didn't feel like replaying the last bits just to see one of the more complete endings.
- Destroy, I couldn't bring myself to do, even though it was the only choice that allowed for Shepard's survival. I had just spent an entire game helping EDI to grow, as well as helping the geth. I couldn't just turn around and sacrifice them. They trusted me; I would not betray them. And, dimly in the back of my head, what if the Catalyst was right? What if I wiped out the Reapers now, but in so doing damned the rest of the galaxy to being destroyed by synthetics? It was a long shot, but possible.
- Synthesis, while presented by the Catalyst as the optimal solution, had several strikes against it. First, in it, Shepard is completely gone. He's not alive in his body, nor is his mind digitized. There is absolutely zero hope for any sort of reunion with his LI. In a meta fashion, this was unacceptable to me. There had to be some sort of hope for the future for Shepard and his LI. The second major strike is that, even if the Catalyst is correct and synthesis is the ultimate destination of organic and synthetic life, he *just said* that it cannot be forced - which is exactly what Shepard would be doing. Maybe Shepard himself was ready for synthesis, but *everyone*? That would be fundamentally wrong, a (please pardon the expression) virtual rape of the entire galaxy. Shepard could not do that.
- Control was left. After getting over the fundamental revulsion of choosing the same option as the Illusive Man, I had to think about it. The Catalyst himself seems to indicate that the Reapers are just tools, used to keep the cycles going, and to preserve the knowledge (somehow) of the various civilizations. A tool is just a tool - it is the mind that drives it that determines whether it is being used for good or for ill. A gun can protect the innocent as easily as it can harm them. By controlling the Reapers, Shepard could stand guard over all life, synthetic and organic, and make sure that they were all able to grow along their own paths - not with the sudden transformation of synthesis, but with the slow growth of their own understanding. If synthetics seemed about to slaughter all organics, he could step in; similarly, if synthetics were about to all be shut down, he could intervene. And of course, should external threats arise, the Reapers could stand against them. As a final consideration, the Catalyst's longer explanation makes it clear that Shepard's thoughts and memories would be preserved in the process of his body's dissolution. I immediately began headcanoning (despite my usual distaste for it) that it would be possible for the Shepard-Mind to split off back a copy of Shepard's own original mind, thoughts and feelings intact. It would only be a virtual being, but it would be Shepard as I knew him. From there, it could be put into some sort of technological body, or continue existing as an independent construct, a ghost in the machine. This could have several implications - a geth-style interface could allow someone else to "enter the matrix", as it were, and interact with him as though he were real. Alternatively, he could have a little floaty hologram projector (like the Illusive Man used on Thessia, only probably improved via Reaper technology) and be able to move independently. Perhaps mass effect fields could be used to simulate the feel of a body? Or perhaps someone with the appropriate cybernetic implants or a cybernetic suit could take the "touch" of Shepard-ghost and transform it into tactile stimuli? There were several possibilities for Shepard's continuation to exist, even if without his original body.
Since Tali was my LI, I could immediately begin making projections. Really, it would make an interesting character arc for her, from geth-hating quarian, to someone able to befriend Legion and achieve peace with the geth, to someone whose own lover gave up his organic form, to replace it with the synthetic. Given the quarian usage of implants and suits already, she would be in an ideal position to modify those to be able to tactilely interact with Shepard. And given the differences in proteins, they could never have a biological child anyway, so that would not be an issue (as an aside, I could see genetic engineering being used on donor "material", or artificially created "material", to allow any of Shepard's LI's to be made pregnant, even after he only exists as virtual life. It's not inconceivable.)
However, that is all just headcanon, and so should not be considered in a real review of the ending for consumption by other people. I just put it out there to share.
Thus, I went with Control, and got my ending. I was left feeling . . . neutral. Not numb, or apathetic, but just . . . finished. Which was a marked improvement over my original reaction to the endings (which was an immediate alt-tab to check the forums and see what I had done wrong). However, even given these definite improvements, I must reconsider my original problems with the ending, and the most major ones are still present.
There is still a total thematic misstep at the end. As I originally noted, I at no point got the impression that the overall theme of the Mass Effect series was one of organics versus synthetics. I did not even get that impression from Mass Effect 3 alone. The enemies were synthetic, yes, but that was not why they were the enemy. The Reapers were the enemy because they wanted to kill everyone. They could have been a mundane civilization, they could have been bioengineered, organic beasts, or they could have been giant intelligent starships, and they would have all been equally evil, and equally opposed, for their goal alone. While "organics vs. synthetics" was a recurrent theme in the series that was addressed through multiple sidequests, it was never presented as the ultimate theme.
The ultimate theme I took away was that by drawing together individuals from varied backgrounds and peoples, and banding together in common purpose, we can achieve a gestalt that is greater than the sum of its parts. That gestalt, driven by the will to never give up, can achieve impossible things, and show what we can achieve at our best. In each game, we gather allies, pool resources and skills, and do the impossible. We show that the problems that drive different beings are things that everyone can see and sympathize with, and not just the unknowable issues of "the other".
Of course, this is likely colored by my own playstyle as a paragon, but even the renegades experienced many of the same things, albeit with a more pragmatic/harsh/brutal/realist twist. They still gathered allies, still achieved impossible tasks.
So, in Mass Effect 3, we follow that same trajectory writ large, uniting not just individuals into a squad, but civilizations into an alliance, solving ancient disputes and bringing people together in common purpose. We go to achieve the impossible and . . . for the first time in the series, fail. The impossible cannot be surmounted. Sovereign cannot be beaten; everyone dies on the Suicide Mission; the only "victory" possible is following the Catalyst's paths.
In the Extended Cut, we can say no. We can reject the Catalyst's premise - but we still cannot achieve the impossible as we could previously. We are all annihilated, leaving behind only a hope for the next cycle.
Another major complaint that I had with the ending was a lack of your choices feeding into it, and that is still present as well. It does not matter how many friends you made or betrayed; it does not matter how many civilizations you destroyed or allied with. The most brutal and vicious Shepard possible is still presented with the same choices by the Catalyst as the most noble and enlightened, so long as their tally of points is enough. The rachni queen is replaced by the rachni breeder, but no rachni are on Earth either way. The Primes do not lend their support in London.
I will concede, although I have not seen them, that the ending slides or ending dialogue may have been slightly altered, and this is good and a definite improvement over the original. Personally, I do not feel that is sufficient; others may disagree, and it is a personal decision how significant this point is to you.
Of course all the options, all the choices, were mapped out by BioWare, but they were then presented to the player. We could have Shepard destroy the rachni or spare them, destroy or preserve the Collector base, favor the geth or quarians (or make peace). We shaped the flow of the narrative. The first two games had to draw to a point at the end, to allow for the beginning of the next game, and that was tolerable and understandable to maintain a semi-coherent narrative. However, at the end, this is where BioWare could (and said they would) cut loose. Every action shapes the final result, altering the path of the future in unforeseen ways. Again, being realistic, I would not expect a completely unique and separate ending for every single possible combination of variables, but I did expect more than what we got. Again, everything draws to a point, and there are only four possible ways out. There are no ending options where the Crucible is not completed, and the Reapers destroy the galaxy (Rejection is similar to this, but the Crucible is still employed). There are no ending options where Shepard can reject the Catalyst's chocies and, by virtue of the technological and moral fabric of the force he has brought together, beat the Reapers, thereby showing that they are not the all-knowing, all-destroying near-gods they believed themselves to be, and so maybe this cycle could be different - or even if not different, at least be free. Knowing that the people behind BioWare are people, there aren't even any weird or silly endings, like the entire series being entirely in Shepard's mind after suffering mental trauma from the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime.
The argument could be made that the ending slides are the distinction that I'm talking about, and I understand that argument. Again, this comes down to a value judgement. For myself, the ending slides, while nice and appreciated, are not what I would have liked. We are shown a container of Neapolitan ice cream, and told that we may have any of the three flavors - but they all come from the same source (and, with the Extended Cut, we can also choose to have unflavored yogurt, if we really want it). The addition of whipped cream or sprinkles to the ice cream, while enjoyable, does not fundamentally chance the experience.
I hoped for a choice between ice cream (and it could still be Neapolitan), cake, pie, or mousse. Abject failure, use of the Crucible and Catalyst, pyrrhic victory on free terms, a coma dream, and other choices I cannot even think of.
As an example, the early Playstation game Colony Wars had a branching campaign path that took interesting and varied turns. It could end in abject defeat for your side after only a handful of missions, or could result in ultimate victory, with several steps in between. I really only mention this to show that if a space simulation from many years ago could pull this off, how could a roleplaying game built upon the idea of player choice and involvement not execute this now?
I hoped, and expected, that BioWare would show me what they could do when unleashed from the need to tie everything together in a nice bow. That they did, I suppose, but I had hoped it would be more impressive.
There are other issues of varying importance, as well, but those are my two most major complaints.
So, in the end, did the Extended Cut manage to save BioWare in my eyes? I really am not sure. As I said, I feel finished. Perhaps I have reached acceptance; but if I have, it is not a very positive acceptance. BioWare have salvaged something from the game, but will I continue to be a customer of theirs, knowing that they have stumbled at the finish on several occasions? Why should I get involved in one of their stories again, only to have to fear the entire time that at the finish line they will stumble? Should I give them more of my money and hope that in the future they do better, or just cut them off? I know I can no longer give them the glowing recommendations I once did.
Thanks to BioWare for doing the Extended Cut, for taking another chance at finishing the story. It was still not what I had hoped for, but it came closer, and at least left the setting that I have come to enjoy in a place that I can imagine it continuing. I suppose, for the Mass Effect series, that will have to be good enough. As for my status as an enthusiastic fan of BioWare, those days are sadly over. I will not say that I will never purchase another BioWare product again, and so in that way, the Extended Cut may have achieved its purpose. But I will absolutely not continue to be an enthusiastic BioWare fan, buying up DLC and related products, preordering and making sure to tell all my friends about how amazing the latest game is.
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