"I want details."

This line is one of the new, player-selectable dialogue options available during a climactic conversation in Mass Effect 3's Extended Cut DLC content. But it could also represent the thoughts of many fans who felt Mass Effect 3's original ending options were too bare bones and not nearly meaningful enough for the conclusion to an epic, three-game story that could easily span over 100 hours.

Luckily for both Shepard and those fans, the new content in the Extended Cut provides plenty of new details about the ultimate fate of the galaxy. It all comes without fundamentally altering the multiple ways that fate can shake out. The DLC probably won't please everybody, but I feel like the Extended Cut is the way the game should have ended in the first place.

Spoiler note: While the rest of this story will take pains not to give away some of the key details of the new content in the Extended Cut, it will necessarily have SIGNIFICANT SPOILERS for those who haven't played the Extended Cut yet (or beaten the original game, for that matter). Stop reading if you want to go in completely fresh.

First off, let's stop any talk that Bioware "caved in" to irate fans by changing the ending it originally envisioned for Mass Effect 3. The major plot points of the ending in the Extended Cut still shake out almost exactly as they did in the original game—depending primarily on the decision Commander Shepard makes in a consequence-laden conversation with the Reaper-controlling catalyst. Whether you decide to destroy the Reapers, control them, or create a synthesis of all organic and synthetic life, there's nothing in the Extended Cut that will feel fundamentally different from what happened before.

(Actually, the Extended Cut does introduce a new storyline branch that does a bit of an end-run around the major decision referenced above, leading to a wholly new conclusion to the entire series. I won't go into details here to avoid spoiling the surprise—you can spoil it for yourself here. Suffice it to say, I consider this short, clever plot twist more of an "alternate reality" than a true changed ending forced on players by Bioware).

While the plot points haven't changed, their presentation in the Extended Cut makes all three major ending paths much more narratively satisfying and easier to understand. The additions start even before you're forced to make that climactic choice. New conversation options let Shepard grill the Catalyst on everything from its origin to its motivations. The resulting back and forth gets pleasantly philosophical about the nature of war and of life itself, while also filling in crucial plot points that were left unexplained in the original endings.

The Extended Cut also does a much better job of explicitly laying out the consequences of Shepard's various choices before she has to make them. By adding and altering just a few lines of dialogue (inserting some new video at crucial points), the player gets a much better idea of what exactly will happen on each of the three paths Shepard faces... and why she'd want to choose one fate over another.

But the most important changes in the Extended Cut come after the final critical decision is made, when players get to see how the galaxy has been fundamentally altered by Shepard's choice. In the original version, many players complained that the only substantial difference between the three endings was the color of the relay-destroying beam that propagated throughout the galaxy. That's no longer true in the Extended Cut. It uses lengthy voiceovers from key franchise characters and short visual vignettes to show and tell how the galaxy looks very different under each branch of the storyline.

While each of these epilogues shares some common imagery, as well some overlapping dialogue covering themes of loss and resilience, there's no way players can complain that they're simply recolored versions of the same basic ending. I was particularly struck by a new dialogue-free scene showing a human and a synthetic fighting side by side against the Reapers. This scene plays out slightly (but noticeably) differently under each of the ending branches. It provides a sparse and effective look at how Shepard's decision directly impacts how the war will end for millions of soldiers.

Bioware has wisely resisted the urge to pacify angry fans by making new, "happier" endings to replace the original game's somewhat depressing and fatalistic tone. Yet there's still something more satisfying and hopeful about the Extended Cut endings, simply through the addition of specific knowledge on how the galaxy will continue to progress after all the sacrifices made by Shepard and her crew. It's a bittersweet, consequential tone that fits with the larger arc of the Mass Effect games more than the abrupt finality of the original endings.

If there's one complaint I have about the Extended Cut, it's how the game's save structure forces players to spend at least 45 minutes or so trudging through the extended final battle sequence each time they want to see one of the expanded endings. It would have been nice to have the option to save the game right before the ultimate conversation with the Catalyst, so players could view all of the new content a bit more efficiently. As it stands, I might recommend impatient players just head over to YouTube to see the expanded endings rather than wasting so much time replaying the same exact battles.

I'm sure there will be some that aren't satisfied with the additions Bioware has made in the Extended Cut. The conclusion still seems to make minimal reference to some rather important decisions made earlier in the series, which was a major complaint for many protestors. And there's still that cryptic final shot of a stargazer and his son discussing traveling out to the stars that has frustrated so many players.

But it's hard to complain about Bioware's sincere effort to add more backstory and context to an ending that it admits had been lacking in both of those qualities. This is the kind of fleshed out, well-rounded conclusion that the Mass Effect series always deserved, and one I can only assume wasn't there before thanks to deadline pressures.