‘Mass Effect 3’ Original Ending Revealed By Ex-BioWare Writer

I don’t know about you but it pains my soul that news on Mass Effect 5 is so thin on the ground. Officially announced back in 2020, BioWare are keeping their cards close to their chest on this one. In April, developers confirmed that the game was in “early development” and you may recall a teaser poster which hinted at the return of the Geth.

Whilst we await further news on the future of the franchise, there’s no harm in looking to the past. Earlier this week, an ex-BioWare writer revealed that developers didn’t anticipate just how badly people would want to bang Garrus which is understandable and now, it’s been revealed that Mass Effect 3 originally had a completely different ending.

If you need a reminder, check out the Mass Effect 5 teaser trailer below.

There is no one ending for Mass Effect 3 given the choice-based nature of the game, but you essentially end up with three main options, all of which were led by Shepard. Shepard can either destroy the Reapers and all synthetic life in the galaxy, take control of the Reapers but die in the process, or sacrifice him/herself thus merging organic life with synthetic life.

Mass Effect writer Drew Karpyshyn has revealed that originally, it was possible to destroy the Reapers without killing everyone else. During a Reddit AMA, Karpyshyn said that the original ending “involved luring the Reapers through the Mass Relays then detonating the entire network to wipe them out, but also destroying/damaging the relays, and isolating every galactic community from the others. But we still had to figure out a lot of the details, and there were some issues with that option, like what we would do in the next series of games.”

It sounds like had the writers gone ahead with this ending, players would’ve had less influence on the outcome of Mass Effect 3. Based on what we’ve seen in the Mass Effect 5 teaser trailer, it sure does look like the Reapers are back and Liara is definitely up to something big. Tell us your secrets BioWare.