I’m making a warning right now, there are a ridiculous number of spoilers in the upcoming article. If you have not, please play the mass effect series. It’s one of the greatest sci-fi trilogies of the past generation and you should play it if you have either a working computer or if you have an XBox360 you should play this series immediately. If you have a PS3 you should play it but the fact that Mass Effect 1 does not exist on it, really does bother me. Look, just play the game, and I’m going to start this review.

Okay since I would bet that most of you know the controversy about the Mass Effect 3 endings I’m not going to bother explaining this stuff. Basically, the endings didn’t really fit the series, were generally pretty crap, and extraordinarily short. So what’s the point of the extended cut then? Well to add more of what Mass Effect is to the game’s ending. To see more of your crew, to experience more of the universe, and to generally see the results of your actions. There are extended epilogues scenes after each ending, there are monologues at the end, there are new cutscenes at the end showing the various races uniting or killing each other I really don’t know as in the lead up to this review I was only allowed my one file, but the fact is that Bioware tried their damnedest to fix everything that was wrong with the original endings.

Well they didn’t succeed. Don’t get me wrong, they did pretty damn well. They fixed all the plotholes that I found infuriating about the original. The Crucible is explained, Space God is actually a manifestation of all reaper knowledge which makes one hell of a lot more sense,  the races are shown far more at the end, there are actually ending epilogues which was very nice to see after all that work. The new endings give me explanations to everything I had needed explained and I’m happy about that. However, was this the ending I wanted?

Going back to my original review, you will see that I’m a supporter of indoctrination theory. This theory basically says that the Mass Effect 3 endings are not actually real and are Shepard’s mind suffering from reaper indoctrination. Basically that after you’re hit with Harbinger’s beam, reality stops being reality. Shepard is actually covered in rubble on Earth and is going through the indoctrination process and the section afterward are all in shepard’s mind, meaning that everything is symbolic. The reaper’s see more value in Shepard than death. They can turn Shepard into their new Saren. They just need Shepard to submit. Look up Indoctrination theory on youtube and it’s likely still the very first hit. It explained things rather nicely and actually added a very intense creepy aura to the whole ending. Honestly, I was terrified when I first started this theory over. The idea of completely losing your mind and losing all control and not in any way knowing the difference is incredibly terrifying to me. The indoctrination theory would have been an excellent way for Mass Effect to continue thematically, all I wanted was an end where Shepard lifted out of the rubble having broken out of indoctrination and charged up the beam. From there, a quick shoot out and no space god.

My general problem is that as brilliant as these endings are, they are not indoctrination theory. And, I know it’s childish, but I’m a little pissed. I thought Bioware might be willing to do that considering the backlash and considering how artistically brilliant the decision would be. I hate being proven wrong. Also, another huge problem with the endings, are that they really show you how BAD the original endings were. Watching and experiencing the new ones when compared to the old ones, just…god. They were such CRAP. I hate to be this negative but they were so utterly goddamn terrible. I can’t even believe they were endings after experiencing the new ones. I would bet good money that if these were the original endings, no one would have complained. At all.

Alright so final thoughts. The extended cut is good. Good enough to keep me playing the series. Good enough to have me playing through it over and over. Good enough to really redeem the original endings. But not enough to be perfect. So for scores I’m going to give two: one with extended cut, one without, because now that I’ve seen the extended cut it really does harm the original endings. Mass Effect 3 with the original ending is a 2 out of 5. But Mass Effect 3 with the extended cut is a 4 out of 5. Go play it the second you get the chance, if you haven’t and if you’re reading this without playing Mass Effect, I appreciate the traffic but go play the series and stop reading.