‘Mass Effect 3’: BioWare Confirms Shepard’s Fate in ‘Destroy’ Ending [SPOILERS]
Fans of Mass Effect franchise may have rejoiced in the wake of ‘Extended Cut’ release for the trilogy’s beleaguered ending. Thanks to BioWare’s decision to extend the game’s ending for providing more clarity to the discerning gamers, several questions have been answered concerning the fate of Shepard’s crew, their allies, the various alien races and the invading Reapers. BioWare

Mass Effect 3's (ME3) Extended Cut got its due release on Tuesday, 26 June after the Mass Effect (ME) fan community expressed its dissatisfaction over the original ending with broken storyline. The extended ending DLC promised to bring more clarity to the ending with detailed cinematic sequences and extended epilogue scenes.

According to Digital Spy, BioWare's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Casey Hudson, later admitted that the extended ending will expand the story and add value, but will not satisfy everybody. Though, the BioWare team is excited to receive the gamers' feedback positively and serve their need for a better ending, there are some things that cannot be changed whatsoever.

"Ultimately our passion is entertaining people, so delighting them with our stories and giving them amazing worlds to escape to, that's what we love to do, so in this medium it just wouldn't make sense for us to make some kind of artistic statement, and then turn our backs on it forever," explained Hudson, according to The Official Xbox Magazine, OXM.

BioWare's lead writer, Mac Walters, also gives a similar opinion about the extended ending. ME3 Extended Cut DLC is "about taking the things that are there and making them shine even more," asserts Walters. As opposed to "trying to change and adapt what's there to reach for a broad audience that's looking for something that was just never intended," he adds.

Walters further reveals how BioWare is tied down with certain feedback that cannot be addressed, wherein some people rejected the entire outcome of the endings outright and requested the game maker to redo everything from scratch. "And we can't do that because that's not our story, we wouldn't know how to write that story," explains Walters.

"What excites us is the challenge of learning how people consume our stories, so it's a learning process for everybody. And then incorporating that feedback, that's how we make our work better.

"You can never completely satisfy everyone. We've seen a whole range of feedback, ranging from people who wanted a total redo, to people who had concerns and questions about the original endings, to people who loved the original endings and have told us they don't want to change anything," concludes BioWare's lead writer.

Spoilers Ahead... Tread With Caution

Nevertheless, the extended ending seems to address more than a few broken pieces in the storyline, according to various reports circulating on the internet following the release of the much-awaited ME3 ending DLC on 26 June. If you completed playing Mass Effect 3 with the original ending then you are likely to witness the fate of the galaxy and realise the consequences of your actions and decisions through the Extended Cut DLC. Accordingly, you will be presented with three versions of concluding narratives - one each from Admiral Hackett, EDI or Synthetic-Shepard.

If you chose the synthetic option, you might signal the end of the human race that will be taken over by machines or rather half-human and half-machines called "Cyborgs" that trigger exciting possibilities for the future of the series. Despite BioWare's dedicated efforts to restore credibility to the broken endings, it seems the extended ending also has a few noticeable chinks. Poor still shots take precedence over a full-fledged video to portray the status of the crew members - of those who lived and remembering those who died - given BioWare's intentions of keeping the size of the DLC to a bare minimum - 1.9GB.

Quite expectedly, the mysterious Indoctrination Theory finds no explanation whatsoever, raising further questions on BioWare's ignorance about the trilogy's key concept. As FirstPost notes, "the bigger weak links in the plot like the Ghost Child and the explanation for why the Reapers periodically harvest all advanced organic life in the galaxy, aren't dealt with nearly as well."

It seems the mystery behind the Reaper invasion on Earth is still in the dark, as BioWare has repeatedly failed to give a logical explanation for the same, much to the chagrin of avid Mass Effect fans.

"So there's no doubt that there will be a whole new wave of discussion and debate, maybe even controversy. But we didn't do the Extended Cut because we're trying to make everybody happy, make it perfect - we just saw an opportunity to expand on things that we felt could add value to the experience, for those that appreciate it," concludes Casey Hudson, according to OXM.