If Extended Cut had the Indoctrination Ending, how would it be done realistically? Fans kind of demanded it for free, and didn't like the idea of paying for DLCs, or one specific DLC that could unlock it. You also had some who wanted the endings the same, you had some who wanted Dark Energy, etc. So how could all this be done within a budget?
I'd have it done two ways. You'd have the ending itself put online free, as a "hidden" ending. Leaving it up to the fans to find out how to trigger it. However, the ending would also launch with Leviathan shortly after, which would create a path that would allow players to not have to find it. I'll go into the details for that in a bit.
EXTENDED CUT:
New Intro Scene:
The free Extended Cut would better fit it's name. Not only does it add new scenes at the end, but also adds a new scene at the intro. Once Shepard looks away from the kids running in the park, instead of James running in, Shepard's allowed to explore his cell. He can read emails, his journey, video messages, the news, a picture of his love interest, etc. Stuff to help the players learn more about the character they're playing, while also giving old players some catchup on what happened in between. We'd see a video message from Vega, who introduces himself as your bodyguard. We'd see a video message from Anderson, confessing he's not on the Council anymore. We'd watch a recorded news story on the current trial between Shepard/Alliance and the batarians, and how they suddenly went dark.
Then James pops in to pick you up. You can request to stay for a bit, in case you missed something.
Added Codex Entries:
Later in the game, we'd get updated codex entries and emails, describing how the Citadel was lost, and if Kelly and Bailey got out alive, or were still trapped on the Citadel. What happened to the Mu Relay? Is the conduit still working?
Added Final Chapter to Priority Earth:
And then we'd get a new bit that starts after Hammer drives away from the fallen Reaper guarding the Conduit. Inside the truck, we're given new options to ask Major Coats. We can ask him why the Reapers don't just turn off the Conduit or blow it up from space? And he'd say blowing it up would cause some kind mini-supernova similar to the one on Arrival, and Destroy Earth. He'll then remind you that the Reapers don't want humans destroyed. They "need" to harvest us. It's their weakness. As for why they don't turn it off, he hopes it's because it's too complicated to shut down right away, and that they might beat them to it. And if they're lucky, the Reapers only now just realized we're aware of the Conduit, and where it leads.
Shepard still points out the lack of protection, when bam. The truck is stopped.
Shepard and crew crawl out, and see themselves surrounded by husks. And two Destroyer Reapers burst out of the ground on your left and right. And they're heading your way. Even worse, there's now a million husks pouring out of the city, heading to Hammer. It seems hopeless.
Now here is where your EMS, and the assets you collected play a part.
We'll be using some of the lost dialogue used here:
https://www.youtube....xnja9v_wG8#t=68
Normandy flies in and blasts a path clear. The same way it did in the opening of ME3. Joker says he couldn't just sit by, and let you take the credit.
Then Hammer gets surrounded by new soldiers.
Low EMS - No side missons - Renegade choices
All you get bare minimal are Krogan, Quarians/Geth (or only one of them if you killed the other), Turians, and Asari.
If you have high EMS - did side missions - kept ME2 characters alive - picked Paragon choices
You get Krogan, Quarians, Geth, Asari, Turians, Elcor, Rachni, Jacob, Jack, Grunt, and Zaeed (mainly because they're the only ones who recorded lines for Priority Earth that's on the disc so far). They surround Hammer. Even putting up an portable energy Shield similar to the one seen at the end of Project Hammer Head.
It's here Shepard needs to make Suicide Mission choices. He must split the assets into groups.
Group A needs to distract the Destroyer on the left. And Group B needs to distract the Destroyer on the right. If you can't destroy them, you need to distract them, to allow Hammer to make it to the Beam. Group C also has to hold the line, keeping the husks porting out of the city at bay.
You can use the assets in different ways. You can send them as ground troops being shot and blown up by the Destroyer, or have Normandy distract one. There's even a combo option. Send both Turians and Krogan on the left to keep the Destroy distracted and watch them die from afar, or have Normandy pick up Grunt, and help him sky dive onto a Destroy, which will keep it distracted while Grunt stays attached, and hammers it's face. Geth and Quarians use Holographic decoys to trick the Second Destroyer. Elcor are only useful against the Husks, which they blast with their canons. The combinations depend on what assets you have.
The final choice is how Hammer gets up the hill to conduit. You can have Asari or Jacks ground create a Biotic barrier to protect you from attacks.
As you go up the hill, it plays out like the rest of the game. Cover shooter as you go up. Shepard will turn his head to see the progress of the groups, and a short cut scene shows the outcome. If things are good, they make it up with majority of Hammer. If things go bad, Hammer is constantly blasted, and losing people.
Either way, by the time you get to the top, and HUGE Beam hits the Barrier, knocking the biotic group out. They're either dead, or in pain from blocking the blast, and can't get up. You can leave them to die, or leave some of hammer to protect them for Normandy to save later.
We then see the scene where Shepard and Anderson walk past a burning truck, and sees Harbinger land. It starts shooting Hammer as they run to the beam. Your team is injured. As Shepard takes cover, we see the Normandy fly in to try and attack Harb. If the Destroyers are distracted, Harb is shot with a Thanix Canon at point black range, and knocked down. But not dead. Not even scratched. Even worse, the cannon has been overloaded and burnt out. And it slowly tries to get up, Normandy flies in to pick up the wounded. Your team goes with them. By the time Harb gets back up, Normandy starts flying away as Harb shoots at it, but misses.
With Mid-EMS, and bad planning, before Normandy could take the shot, it's then blasted by one of the destroyers. Normandy manages to dodge the shots, but ends up missing Harb, and is forced to fly off.
However, if some of Hammer made it, Harb is too distracted by shooting them, he doesn't care about your team crawling away from the battle, as seen here.
If too low, and not enough Hammer to take the hit, Harb kills them.
In all endings we see Anderson get pushed aside by a solider, who dies in a blast. The push knocks Anderson out from a bang on the head.
After the shooting, Shepard is knocked out, and Harb leaves to chase after the Normandy or kill the rest of retreating Hammer.
After Shepard warps up, we see Anderson follow. Reporting to Hackett that Shepard made it, and he's going up with him.
Citadel Changes:
The rest of the game plays the same as we got. Accept for one change. In the Keeper tunnel, we notice a keeper is dragging a body somewhere. You wouldn't think much of it, accept the body is "a man" if you're male Shepard and a "woman" if Femshep. A little clue as to what is "really" happening.
Flashbacks are properly fixed as they are in current Extended Cut.
Secret Ending:
We then get to the ending, and everything plays out the same. However, if you have high EMS from multiplayer and pick destroy, Shepard wakes up in a room covered in smoke. There's a fire going on, and there's dead Keepers and husks everywhere.
This is the secret ending.
He pushes the rubble away, and crawls down the hallway, past an exploded pipe. He makes it into a room, and finds dead Anderson on ground. Next to him is TIM, who's also dead. A bullet in his head.
You turn around, and see husks heading down the corridor you came. They shoot at you.
You close the door, and lock the door. Then take Anderson's head radio, and get out of there. As you move, you contact Hackett. He says the Citadel is still closed. You ask if there's any way he can prove he's really Hackett, and his responds to you confused, not knowing what you mean. You make it outside, and find the place surrounded. Near you is a dead soldier with a CAIN. You take it, and blow them up before they shoot you. You then take a space car, and fly to Citadel Tower, where it's shot down, forcing you to crash inside, road killing the husks inside guarding it. You manage to kill the survivors, and lock the elevator. You get to the control panel, about to open the station. Hackett explains that they figured out how the crucible works. It uses dark energy to transmit a turn off code to all Reapers, and the Citadel helps deliver the energy to all Mass Relays. The energy is able to bypass any firewall or mass effect field, allowing it to be successfully delivered. They believe this might've been a backup plan for whoever originally made the Reapers to shut them off.
Harbinger gets inside your head again. Instead of the Council Chamber, you're back at the forest in your dreams. But instead of the child, it's Shepard standing there. In good health. Trying to talk you out of opening the Citadel, and activating the Crucible.
It explains that if you activate the crucible, you will cause a dark energy crisis that can't be turned back. That you'll end up destroying the galaxy long term instead of saving it. It lied to you about it's original purpose (synthetics vs organics), because it thought you wouldn't understand. It lied to you about being on the Citadel, and being the Catalyst, because it wanted to rob you of hope. But now it's being honest. They're really trying to find a way to prevent Dark Energy from destroying the galaxy, while preserving life as best as possible. You call bullshit on it. It lied before, it could be lying now. But they show you what would happen if the crucible is used. You can believe them, and allow the harvest to continue. Or refuse. You tell them you don't care what reasons it has. What it's doing is wrong, and it's time to put an end to it.
Harb then takes on Reaper form. You take on your healthy form, surrounded by your squadmates. You battle harb in your mind, and break free. Back to reality. You're putting in the commands, only to lose reality again. Harb warns you. If you don't stop, it'll destroy the Normandy. You see flashes in your mind of Harb and a group of Reapers chasing the Normandy.
If Shepard gives in, then everyone is harvested.
Shepard refused, and gets back to reality. If high EMS, Normandy is able to fly the Reapers into an ambush of ships, which blows them up. If low, Shepard watches a flash of the Normandy being shot down the second he opens the Citadel doors.
The doors open. The crucible docks. Hackett says they're connected to the Citadel now, and will do the rest.
He gives orders to keep holding the Reapers back for more time.
The battle gets louder.
Shepard asks "Is this... really... real?"
The crucible, seems to be charging up. Ready to release something.
And Shepard passes out.
Shepard is now surrounded by black. Reapers all around. Looking down onto him. Then a force suddenly hits them, and they all slowly start falling down.
Cut to reality. We see the wave has fired. And Reapers are slowly moving lifelessly in space. Like dead insects in water.
Hackett (over the radio): I don't believe it.... We won.
But is Shepard dead? His body is still lifeless on the ground. Not moving. Losing the last of his blood. Sad music starts playing.
If the Normandy is still up in the air, it turns around, and heads straight for the Citadel in order to save Shepard.
But is it too late?
If shot, the Normandy crashes on Earth. Only Liara, James, Edi, and LI (who wore plot armor during the crash) survive to tell the story. They give a voice over depending on which one you were the closest with. And a funeral scene plays out for Shepard, and the Normandy crew. Instead of a slide show, they describe to you possible future events, as the camera pans around between the Krogan, Turians, Asari, and Quarians/Geth who're also there. In thousand, to pay their respects.
In the Normandy Survived scene, we see a window. A sunny sky. Earth is being rebuilt. Your LI or Joker is seen walking down a hallway in a hospital somewhere. They give a voice over on some of the things that has happen, and might happen when it comes to the other races and past choices. They seem to be gathering outside in thousands, as if awaiting for news. They then pass by surviving squadmates. They nod. Farewell and into the Inevitable starts playing. They then make it into a hospital room, and we see Shepard asleep. The LI holds Shepard's hand. And Shepard awakes up, and smiles.
Credits.
Post Credits, Shepard is back on his feet, and is able to talk with past characters before leaving the hospital to make a speech. Apparently, with the War Over, and many Leaders dead, the Galaxy looks to Shepard to help them on what's next. Shepard can then approve who will be the new Citadel Council (the olds ones lost there jobs), or Shepard can put himself as the main leader. Or Shepard can tell the audience "I'm not interested in making anymore choices anymore. I'm leaving this planet. Good luck and good riddance." before running walking away, leaving the galaxy to figure out what it wants to do, without Shepard choosing for them.
LEVIATHAN:
If you got this DLC, you get Extended Cut downloaded with it automatically. My idea for the Leviathan story would involve a Roger Reaper, and not the creators of the Reapers. You end up finding it, and get inside, learning that one Reaper is an entire species living inside, with one being dominate. They try to convince you that they're still alive, though trapped. They were able to break free. Many have done so before, but they've been destroyed. It informs you of the Dark Energy threat, and how the Reapers have been trying to solve it. They might have been made to stop it, but it has no memory of life before Reapers. Those memories Harb stripped. They even tell you the Human Reaper might've been a way to solve the issue, and they might've wanted Shepard to be the dominate mind of it. They beg Shepard to spare them, but Shepard can either given up the Reaper to be destroyed and studied by the Alliance, or have it get away. In either case, it gives Shepard the ability to resist some forms of Indoctrination, though not sure.
After beating this DLC, when you made it to the end, when the Catalyst starts explaining it's motive, you now have options to point out "Wait... what are you talking about? That's not your motive. Aren't you trying to solve something else?" If you go this route, the Catalyst doesn't like. You then start asking more questions, as if breaking free, and then suddenly...
Bam. You got into the secret ending without picking Destroy. Instead, Shepard starts realizing he's being dragged away by a group of husks and keepers. He still has his gun, or sees and grabs a gun from a fallen soldier. Then sees an explosive tube in view, and shoots it.
BOOM. The husks die, and rumble falls on him.
And then we continue where Destroy Plus leaves off.
And that's my rough idea of how Indoctrination Ending could've been done. We'd have to wait maybe 5 months instead of 3 like we did with the current Extended Cut, but beyond that, that's the best budget solution I can think of, that fixes a bunch of issues.
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