9 Video Game Endings Developers Want You To Forget
1. Mass Effect 3's Original Ending
Even with the Legendary Edition stripping away multiplayer microtransactions and adding all story DLC as standard to Mass Effect 3, there's always been an overarching issue with how the galaxy-wiping Reapers were conceptualised across the whole trilogy.
The reason comes from Bioware largely aiming for an explanation to the Reapers' purpose relating to them being immortal. It's mentioned in Mass Effect 1 by Sovereign himself, and Mass Effect 2 brings in mention of a cataclysmic force known as "Dark Energy".
Writer Drew Karpyshyn told PC Gamer in 2013 that the Reapers would be wiping out organic life because they can't control biotic power, and that was the key to stopping Dark Energy slowly obliterating the galaxy entirely.
The Reapers would stay "immortal" as mentioned, but Bioware would write some way for Commander Shepard and the gang to win the day.
In the EA-meddled Mass Effect 3 we got though, the Reapers were retconned to be "created" by the Leviathans, opening up the "choose-one-of-three-endings" finale, where Shepard can gain control and stop the apocalypse that way.
The Legendary Edition fixed many things about Mass Effect as a franchise, but there's no getting around that lack of connective tissue.