Mass Effect 3's ending



While mh:awesomegames:Mass Effect 3 received wide acclaim, the game's original ending was very poorly received by many fans, and the negative PC fan reviews on Metacritic exceed the mixed and positive reviews. Criticisms included that the single palette swap ending rendered character choices inconsequential, a general lack of closure, lore contradictions and plotholes, character and narrative inconsistencies, the absence of a final boss battle, and inconsistencies between statements by BioWare staff during the game's development and the form the endings ultimately took.

Due to the sheer amount of backlash from angry fans, EA released a free "Extended Cut" DLC that elaborated on the consequences of the player's choices throughout the Mass Effect trilogy, retconned some of the original ending's more controversial elements, and restored several cutscenes that had been removed from the base game though fans were still critical of the DLC for not fixing core storytelling problems and adding a 4th anticlimatic ending.

Reaction
Displeased fans organized an internet campaign called "Retake Mass Effect" to demand a better ending to the game, part of which includes a charity drive for the organization Child's Play. The drive officially raised $80,000 in less than two weeks.

One fan went so far as taking his complaint to the Federal Trade Commission, the agency created to protect consumers. His argument was that BioWare did not deliver on the promise of its game, saying, "after reading through the list of promises about the ending of the game they made in their advertising campaign and PR interviews, it was clear that the product we got did not live up to any of those claims."

The outcry over the original ending also led to the creation of the "Entitled gamer" term, used by gaming journalists to dismiss valid criticisms from gamers.

Playlists
Smudboy's series on the original ending Smudboy's series on the "extended cut"

Videos
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