Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut DLC Review

Considering the DLC is free and only happens to expand the endings, which are also available on pretty much every video-sharing platform, I’d be surprised if there’s someone who hasn’t made their mind on the Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut already. That said, it doesn’t mean you won’t find this review piece on it from Rock, Paper, Shotgun uninteresting either. Here are the final paragraphs:

The other two have similar new content. Often times it’s the same scenes redone, but much more meaningfully than with a different colour filter. And crucially, you also see some significant changes to the way the mass relays are affected. They’re not blown up any more. They’re either unharmed, or damaged. But it seems they can be rebuilt. It’s not quite the brutal, galaxy-exploding/isolating conclusion many refused to suspend their disbelief to ensure.

There’s one more new addition. A lovely scene, that again I won’t spoil, but adding a clever touch of closure without compromising or denying anything. Again, it’s the same for all three of these endings, but importantly there’s a different narrator for each. And talking of different, of course these endings are adapting to what happened as you played all three games, who’s still alive, who died, and who you porked.

I think BioWare have done an absolutely stunning job here. They’ve maintained their integrity and their vision, they’ve stuck to the ending they wanted to tell, but they’ve been contrite enough to fix genuine mistakes. They’ve embellished upon what they already had, and in doing so have made things feel more meaningful without tying stupid bows to every thread. They’ve clearly spent a fortune doing it, and it’s yours for free.

To be honest, I still can’t help but find the talk of “artistic vision” a little pretentious when the same developers decided many things based on fan feedback already, but that might just be me being jaded.