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Mass Effect 3 ending controversy
Mass Effect 3 is an action role-playing video game and the third installment of the Mass Effect video game series, developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts (EA), the first in the series to not be published by Microsoft Game Studios (MGS). Upon its release on March 6, 2012, for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows, Mass Effect 3 generated controversy when its ending was poorly received by players who felt that it did not meet their expectations. Criticisms included the ending rendering character choices inconsequential, a general lack of closure, plot holes, and narrative inconsistency.
On June 26, 2012, developers released an Extended Cut as downloadable content (DLC) intended to clarify the endings and remedy fan concerns. The initial announcement of the development of add-on content to amend the ending as well as the subsequent release of Extended Cut sparked debates over the treatment of video games as art and whether BioWare should have to alter their vision of the work in response to external pressure, regardless of its quality.
In the original Mass Effect trilogy, players assume the role of Commander Shepard, a customizable avatar who leads allies from across the Milky Way galaxy in a struggle against a collective of powerful synthetic lifeforms called the Reapers, who harvest the galaxy of sentient spacefaring life every 50,000 years. By the events of Mass Effect 3, the Reapers have arrived in the galaxy and begin harvesting entire worlds. To stop them, Shepard must form an alliance between all of Mass Effect's alien races to build the Crucible, a megastructure built from blueprints designed by the civilizations from previous cycles, including the Protheans, which can theoretically destroy the Reapers.
As Shepard, players dispatch a final "Marauder" enemy, entering a Reaper teleportation beam on Earth to reach the Citadel alongside their close ally and mentor, David Anderson, and begin the game's ending sequence. This follows a long and grueling battle in London where Shepard is gravely wounded by Harbinger, the leader of the Reapers. Once there, Shepard and Anderson engage in a dialog-based final showdown with the Illusive Man, the leader of Cerberus; only Shepard survives the confrontation. Shepard then attempts to fire the Crucible, only to be transported to the Citadel's pinnacle. They encounter the "Star Child," the Reaper gestalt intelligence manifested in the form of a hologram of a child referring to itself as "the Catalyst." The Catalyst reveals the Reapers' true motives, explaining that this repeated culling prevents organic life from inevitably being rendered extinct by their own less-advanced synthetic creations.
The Catalyst then presents up to three options for activating the Crucible, which will break the Reapers' galactic cycle of extinction:
By making any of the above choices, Shepard activates the Crucible, which emits a wave of energy that spreads throughout the galaxy via the mass relays, destroying the mass relay network in the process. As the Normandy is hit by the wave of energy, it crashes on a remote planet.
Chris Hepler, one of the game's writers and the project's de facto "loremaster", explained in a 2021 interview that the final ending decision was both easier and had "much more project momentum", and that it was embraced by the project leads almost immediately, including its use of "space magic". The controversial aspects about the endings, such as Destroy ignoring the AI problem the Reapers aimed to prevent, Control rewarding the Reapers, and Synthesis violating the galaxy's bodily autonomy, were intentional in order to not make any of the choices perfectly moral or "right" for everyone. However, he also agreed that the game hinted at alternate endings that could have been used, and that a more hard science-based ending had been considered.
Concept scenarios for alternate endings that were discarded included the following:
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Mass Effect 3 ending controversy
Mass Effect 3 is an action role-playing video game and the third installment of the Mass Effect video game series, developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts (EA), the first in the series to not be published by Microsoft Game Studios (MGS). Upon its release on March 6, 2012, for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows, Mass Effect 3 generated controversy when its ending was poorly received by players who felt that it did not meet their expectations. Criticisms included the ending rendering character choices inconsequential, a general lack of closure, plot holes, and narrative inconsistency.
On June 26, 2012, developers released an Extended Cut as downloadable content (DLC) intended to clarify the endings and remedy fan concerns. The initial announcement of the development of add-on content to amend the ending as well as the subsequent release of Extended Cut sparked debates over the treatment of video games as art and whether BioWare should have to alter their vision of the work in response to external pressure, regardless of its quality.
In the original Mass Effect trilogy, players assume the role of Commander Shepard, a customizable avatar who leads allies from across the Milky Way galaxy in a struggle against a collective of powerful synthetic lifeforms called the Reapers, who harvest the galaxy of sentient spacefaring life every 50,000 years. By the events of Mass Effect 3, the Reapers have arrived in the galaxy and begin harvesting entire worlds. To stop them, Shepard must form an alliance between all of Mass Effect's alien races to build the Crucible, a megastructure built from blueprints designed by the civilizations from previous cycles, including the Protheans, which can theoretically destroy the Reapers.
As Shepard, players dispatch a final "Marauder" enemy, entering a Reaper teleportation beam on Earth to reach the Citadel alongside their close ally and mentor, David Anderson, and begin the game's ending sequence. This follows a long and grueling battle in London where Shepard is gravely wounded by Harbinger, the leader of the Reapers. Once there, Shepard and Anderson engage in a dialog-based final showdown with the Illusive Man, the leader of Cerberus; only Shepard survives the confrontation. Shepard then attempts to fire the Crucible, only to be transported to the Citadel's pinnacle. They encounter the "Star Child," the Reaper gestalt intelligence manifested in the form of a hologram of a child referring to itself as "the Catalyst." The Catalyst reveals the Reapers' true motives, explaining that this repeated culling prevents organic life from inevitably being rendered extinct by their own less-advanced synthetic creations.
The Catalyst then presents up to three options for activating the Crucible, which will break the Reapers' galactic cycle of extinction:
By making any of the above choices, Shepard activates the Crucible, which emits a wave of energy that spreads throughout the galaxy via the mass relays, destroying the mass relay network in the process. As the Normandy is hit by the wave of energy, it crashes on a remote planet.
Chris Hepler, one of the game's writers and the project's de facto "loremaster", explained in a 2021 interview that the final ending decision was both easier and had "much more project momentum", and that it was embraced by the project leads almost immediately, including its use of "space magic". The controversial aspects about the endings, such as Destroy ignoring the AI problem the Reapers aimed to prevent, Control rewarding the Reapers, and Synthesis violating the galaxy's bodily autonomy, were intentional in order to not make any of the choices perfectly moral or "right" for everyone. However, he also agreed that the game hinted at alternate endings that could have been used, and that a more hard science-based ending had been considered.
Concept scenarios for alternate endings that were discarded included the following: