The Mass Effect trilogy’s ending certainly divided players back in 2012, but one of the key writers on the series says that, with the Legendary Edition now available to fans, he’s heard that the ending is going down better than it ever has. Having played the trilogy for the first time myself a couple of years ago, I’m inclined to agree.
Mac Walters was a lead writer on Mass Effect 2 and 3, before being the creative director of Mass Effect Andromeda and the project director of Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Walters is now heading up NetEase studio Worlds Untold after leaving BioWare and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf earlier this year, and has talked to MinnMax’s Ben Hanson in a new interview about leaving BioWare, the Mass Effect RPG games, and what’s next.
Regarding the Legendary Edition, Walters says “At the very least I was like ‘Well this is going to bring those conversations back up again,’” acknowledging that even while having discussions for Anthem, talk of Mass Effect 3’s ending never went away.
“A couple of comments we had were actually very much to the point of ‘When you experience them back to back it puts a different lens – I’m not saying it fixes the ending or anything like that – on that whole experience.’ The other thing was, I think a lot of the pain around that was a sense of ending Shepherd’s journey.”
Walters goes on to say how, with the Legendary Edition, “We’re giving you the full trilogy once again, so if you want to reroll and start over, reroll and start over. That’s what I hear, a lot of people play it all the way through and start all the way back at 1.”
“If you think about it in the past, you think about the difference in the way it looked, the way it played between 3 and 1,” Walters continues. “You’d have to be hardcore to go all the way back to 1.”
As someone who played the entire Mass Effect trilogy for the first time over a holiday break a few years ago, I can see where Walters is coming from. I’d missed the boat on exactly why Mass Effect 3’s ending was controversial, and while I didn’t think it was incredible, I found it a fitting end to Shepard’s journey, and the trilogy as a whole. Having each of the three games now sit visually and mechanically side by side does help the overall storytelling, and makes the ending shine in a way I don’t think many thought it did back in 2012.
While you wait for Mass Effect 5 (or whatever BioWare ends up naming it) we’ve got everything you need to know about the studio’s next fantasy game with the Dragon Age 4 release date, alongside some of the best space games currently on PC.
Remember to follow us on Google News for daily PC gaming news, guides, and reviews, or get our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some great bargains.
