A Mass Effect 2 ending created as a joke by one BioWare developer sees Commander Shepard shake off the suicide mission to passionately kiss and make up with the villainous Illusive Man, in a total transformation of the RPG game’s classic climax that could have really stirred up the plot for Mass Effect 3.
Created by Mass Effect 2 cinematics designer Violet McVinnie, who now heads up UK-based game studio Long Way Home, the passionate “ending” was created as a joke after the development of ME2 had been completed. It shows Shepard recovering from the climactic suicide mission, before climbing to his feet and sprinting towards the antagonistic Illusive Man and embracing him with a passionate kiss, all to the stirring chorus of Aerosmith’s “Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing”.
So I had an interesting habit when I worked at BioWare. The day after we finished making a game I'd always throw together a quick video envisioning what it would be like if our characters would just kiss and make up. I'd need to find the Dragon Age version again. pic.twitter.com/6i4mcGraeX
— McVee (@VioletMcVinnie) November 23, 2022
“So I had an interesting habit when I worked at BioWare,” McVinnie explains. “The day after we finished making a game I’d always throw together a quick video envisioning what it would be like if our characters would just kiss and make up”. There is apparently another of these joke endings animated for Dragon Age, which McVinnie says she “needs to find”.
For players disappointed with the ending of Mass Effect 3, we can only imagine how Shepard and the Illusive Man falling madly in love with one another might have affected that narrative. Could it have made things better? Who knows. But it’s fun to speculate how other videogames might look if they ended in a heated embrace between hero and villain. Gordon Freeman making out with G-Man, anyone?
Take a look at some other great open-world games if you miss the Citadel and far reaches of Mass Effect’s galaxy. You might also want to – ahem – peruse some of the best sex games on PC, if you prefer your characters to be lovers, not fighters.