Today Electronic Arts made the Extended Cut DLC available for users to download. Reportedly, it would wrap up plot holes, explain the Reapers further, and actually be influenced by all the choices that you made throughout the game.

I’ll admit that I eagerly downloaded it and went in with high hopes for a better and more personalized (and meaningful) ending. I won’t spoil it for you but the new DLC adds a couple cut scenes to each of the three traditional ending choices and even adds an alternate ending as well.

The download is a bit over 800 MB, and even around 10PM CST I was able to max out my Internet connection to download the full game and the DLC pack. To get the DLC, open up Origin, click on the “My Games” tab, then click on the little “i” icon in the lower left of the Mass Effect 3 icon. It will now open the Mass Effect 3 game details panel. In the upper right-hand corner, click on the “Shop for add-ons” button. Find the Extended Cut pack (free), and download it.

Once downloaded and installed, you will be able to start up the game and load a save just before you enter the Citadel in the final level. The steps needed to find and install the download were not as intuitive as the simple instructions EA provided, so I hope my path to the DLC will help you (I spent quite a few minutes trying to find the area they said to go to… may be related to a different version of the Origin client and me not being very familiar with the interface, but still).

Warning Spoilers after the break. You’ve been warned!

 

So, after playing through the ending again, I chose the new “ending” of inaction. I refused all three of the choices offered by the catalyst. This resulted a couple cut scenes that provided a little bit of closure but did not feel personalized – and did not answer any of the questions I had. I did find out in the last cut scene that the Reapers have been destroyed by the following generation of races and there is peace. Liara shows up as a holographic projection teasing me with archives and stories that would answer all my questions… but in the end did not let me access the archives or get any answers as to how the war was won and such.

Ah well. In a word, the Extended Cut was underwhelming. The endings just do not live up to the rest of the game, and that’s a huge shame. What do you think about the DLC? Did it satisfy your curiosity about the end of the trilogy?

If you are curious about the other endings, check out this article which details all four paths your Shepard can take. Apparently, the traditional three endings added even less new content!