![]() That said, one of the names you hear most often whenever anyone talks about the series’ strongest creative voices is “Chris Hepler.” Chris Hepler’s Superweapon Ending Still Sees Shepard DieĪs previously mentioned, a lot of people worked on Mass Effect over the years, and a lot of people are responsible for your favorite (and least favorite) parts of the franchise. I’ve heard that Karpyshyn’s departure from the team and a possible leak of an early version of the Mass Effect 3 script may have also contributed to this idea being scrapped, but it sounds like the bigger culprit here is the complicated process of writing an ending to a story this big and how things get lost along the way. So why was it “cut?” Well, you have to remember that it doesn’t sound like this ending was ever really set in stone at any point, so it’s not possible to talk about it being cut in such a simple way. More than a few fans over the years have supported some version of this ending over the ones we got. Still, it’s a fascinating concept made all the more interesting by the implication that the writers may have been softly setting the key components of this ending up in Mass Effect 2. In one version of this ending, players would have had to decide whether or not to help the Reapers essentially destroy humanity in order to create a human/reaper hybrid or to bet on humanity being able to find an alternate solution to the dark energy spread. A draft of this ending even suggested the Reapers believed that humans might have the best shot at stopping the spread of dark energy. Their hope is that someone in the next 50,000-year cycle will find a way to stop the dark energy spread altogether. The idea was that the Reapers are actually meant to purge the galaxy every 50,000 years or so and “save it” from being completely destroyed by dark energy. Considering that dark energy is capable of destroying stars and other life-giving resources…well, that’s bad news. You should really hear him talk about the specifics, but the basic idea was that dark energy has been spreading throughout the galaxy and that the use of Mass Relay technology was accelerating that spread. Karpyshyn’s ending (although we hesitate to call it that) would have followed up on the “Dark Energy” subplot briefly mentioned in Mass Effect 2. Having said all of that, Karpyshyn has talked about a possible ME3 ending that he worked on at one point, and it is fascinating. It’s not like there was this clear-cut ending the original writers created early on that was just abandoned along the way. He has also made it very clear over the years that plans regarding ME 3‘s ending were “vague” in the early days of the franchise and that there were a lot of ideas being tossed around at that time. He’s not credited as a Mass Effect 3 writer, but Karpshyn has indicated that he participated in early discussions regarding that game’s plot and ending. However, Karpyshyn eventually left the Mass Effect team to work on The Old Republic. He worked on Mass Effect 2 in a similar capacity (based on what we’ve heard about that game’s development). As head writer for that game, Karpyshyn was responsible for (among other things) ensuring that the contributions of the game’s various other writers felt consistent. His contributions to that legendary game led to him becoming the head writer on the first Mass Effect. While Karpyshyn worked on Baldur’s Gate 2 and Neverwinter Nights, he really made a name for himself as a scenario and dialog writer for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. In the nine years since Mass Effect 3‘s release, we’ve heard stories about other endings to Mass Effect 3 that just never became the canonical conclusion for one reason or another.įrom fascinating ideas pitched by former Mass Effect writers to a DLC story that some consider to be a more than satisfying finale, these are four of the most notable Mass Effect 3 alternate endings that show us what could have been. While it’s going to be interesting to see whether or not time has healed those wounds enough to allow fans to reappraise Mass Effect 3 and its ending, it’s also worth noting that Mass Effect 3‘s Extended Cut isn’t the only “alternate ending” that exists. ![]() Even the “Extended Cut” version of the ending BioWare eventually released as DLC has done little to change its reputation as one of the most disappointing finales in any medium. ![]() If you somehow didn’t know, Mass Effect 3‘s ending is a big part of the reason why some consider it to be one of the most disappointing games of all-time. There’s a degree to which the release of Mass Effect Legendary Edition lives under the shadow of Mass Effect 3‘s controversial ending.
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