If you’ve played Mass Effect 3, then you probably remember the backlash that its ending received. Without spoiling anything for our readers, the game’s ending was criticized for undermining one of the series’ major selling points and disregarding the decisions made prior. It has now emerged that the ending was just as divisive among the game’s developers as it was among fans.
Speaking to The Gamer’s Cian Maher, writer Jay Turner revealed that he was “pretty upset” about the ending. He had moved on to a different company before the game’s development wrapped up.
“When I played the game, I was pretty OK with the ending, since I considered the whole of Mass Effect 3 to be the ending for the trilogy, but after I replayed it and realized that my decisions only really changed the color of the explosions in the ending cutscene, I was pretty upset,” said Turner.
Patrick Moran, who worked on Mass Effect 3‘s multiplayer as Senior Gameplay Designer, revealed that he sent an email to BioWare to express his concerns about the ending, but he never received a response.
“A good number of the Mass Effect team pushed back against the ending,” said Moran. “I remember reading the story beats, getting upset because it felt like all the decisions I made no longer mattered. I sent an email off challenging the ending and received no reply. The Mass Effect team was run like a navy ship, with strict reporting lines, scopes of responsibility, and team leaders who had been there awaiting their turn for promotion for years and years. You followed orders and tried to not be too squeaky or uppity.”
Such was the fan backlash that BioWare released free DLC focused on the ending. However, many still feel like it didn’t do the series justice.
[Source: The Gamer]