Mass Effect 3s Original Storyboard Endings Explained

Mass Effect 3’s Original Storyboard Endings Explained

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Early on there were three completely different endings planned for Mass Effect 3, though they shared similar problems with the ones that shipped.

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Mass Effect 3s Original Storyboard Endings Explained

Though the trilogy is generally acclaimed, Mass Effect 3 is notorious for delivering a weak finale. Those endings that fans are familiar with were not the original concepts for Commander Shepard’s solutions to the Reaper invasion of the Milky Way. In fact, early storyboards for the various endings to Mass Effect 3 were quite different to the final product, but they may not have addressed the widespread criticism that came shortly after release.

Before its release in 2012, Mass Effect 3 was highly anticipated. It was set to conclude a story that had begun in 2007 with the original game, which had made an ambitious attempt at a piece of storytelling that had galaxy-wide consequences for the player’s actions. After potentially dozens of hours in control of Commander Shepard, though, those who came to the ending of Mass Effect 3 were met with an underwhelming cutscene that had only small variations for the different possible routes. The backlash that followed spurred the developer, BioWare, to revise the ending through a free Extended Cut update, but this did not restore what was originally planned early in development.

The Extended Cut merely expanded on what was already there, but now a short documentary from People Make Games has revealed what could have been. A handful of former BioWare developers give some insights on their work from roughly a decade ago, specifically as it pertains to the trilogy’s ending. Included in the doc is an overview of an early draft of Mass Effect 3’s ending sequences, as told by animation director Dave Wilkinson. The storyboard endings for Mass Effect 3 are certainly different than the final product, and may have gotten a better reception from fans, but they likely wouldn’t have addressed the core issues many had with the shipped endings.

The Controversy Over Mass Effect 3’s Ending

Mass Effect 3s Original Storyboard Endings Explained

The anger over the ending to the Mass Effect trilogy stems mostly from something of a broken promise. A large part of the series’ identity came from the idea that player choices matter and had consequences within the game world. Mass Effect 3 has three different endings, which all essentially reneged on BioWare’s assurances that the final would be a culmination of the choices made hitherto. In the final minutes of Mass Effect 3, players could choose one of three outcomes for the Reaper threat: destroy, where all synthetic life in the galaxy (including the Geth and EDI) would be wiped out; control, where Shepard sacrificed themself to take command of the Reapers; and synthesis, which would merge all organic and synthetic life in the galaxy.

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Rather than the conclusion directly resulting from prior actions, it was essentially a glorified dialog wheel choice, with only that single decision contributing to the final cutscene. What put salt in the metaphorical wound was that those final cutscenes were all practically identical, with a different color palette and voice over. What was promoted as a unique conclusion to each Shepard’s individual journey ended up being one of six canned endings, undermining one of the series’ core tenets. Players were asked to make hundreds of choices in Mass Effect, from massive to minuscule, with a promise that they would have an impact on the finale, and that turned out to be almost entirely false.

The Original Storyboard Endings For Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 3s Original Storyboard Endings Explained

When Shepard arrives at the very end of Mass Effect 3, they’re confronted by the Catalyst, the Citadel’s biggest secret – an AI which controls the Reapers. Presented in the form of a humanoid child, the Catalyst is meant to mirror a boy killed in the Reaper invasion of Earth that haunts Shepard throughout the game, but this was not originally going to be the final encounter of ME3. Following the revivification process that brought Shepard back from death at the beginning of ME2, they were originally supposed to have an even wider range of cybernetics by trilogy’s end, according to Wilkinson, where they would interface with what is essentially the “god of the Reapers,” or a sort of queen AI.

After Johnny Mnemonic-like plugging into the Citadel’s mainframe, Shepard would have been presented with three options, much like the released endings. In the released version of the game, synthesis is the hardest of the possible Mass Effect endings to achieve, though it was originally planned to be available to everyone. The so-called queen Reaper would have explained to Shepard that the Reaper way of existence is unsustainable, yet they are unable to evolve. The queen would then propose that the only way forward for both organic and synthetic life would be to merge. This would have lead to a cutscene where an Asari mother and daughter discuss how important Shepard’s decision was, and how it ultimately saved all life in the galaxy.

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The other two options were designed to be the final outcomes for Renegade and Paragon Shepards. Renegade Shepard wouldn’t have negotiated with a Reaper AI, opting to destroy the Citadel and Earth in order to get rid of the Reapers. The Paragon route originally intended for Shepard to take the place of the Reaper AI, and sacrifice themself in order to take control of the Reapers and make them a force of good. In practice, these three storyboard endings aren’t much different than the ones that shipped with Mass Effect 3. The largest change in practice, aside from different cutscenes, was that it sounds like the Renegade and Paragon options would’ve only been attainable beyond certain thresholds on the game’s morality scale.

Mass Effect 3’s Original Endings Aren’t Great Either

Though the idea of getting something with a bit more variety to end Mass Effect 3 is enticing, these original storyboards don’t really address the issues that arose from the ones that shipped. The storyboard endings still effectively clear the slate and offer Shepard different choices with little prior influence. The Renegade and Paragon options are a little more clearly defined, but they are still distinctly separated from the actions taken throughout the games. It would appear that even early in development, BioWare wasn’t planning on following through with the promise of choices affecting the ending, which would admittedly be an incredibly difficult task.

The main shortcoming in Mass Effect 3’s endings – both shipped and the original storyboards – is its abandonment of the themes that had been built up over three games. The trilogy repeatedly emphasized that the only way to ensure victory against the Reapers was to unite the galaxy to a common cause. For most of ME3’s runtime, this was exactly the goal, with the Crucible positioned as the ultimate objective to finally be able to fight back against the Reapers. Instead of attaining some form of powerful weaponry, players are instead presented with three options approaching deus ex machina levels of subversion. Mass Effect 3’s original storyboard endings may have been a bit more cinematically engaging than the shipped versions, but they would have provided a similarly dissatisfying finale.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/mass-effect-3-original-ending-storyboard-changes/

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