THE LONG GOODBYE

How DLC gave us closure when the base game couldn’t.

- Sean Martin

Endings are difficult. When you have to tie up every loose end, answer every question, and offer a climactic payoff so players feel their actions were significant, it starts to stretch the boundaries of what a single game can accomplish. It’s no wonder that, almost paradoxically, epilogues in the form of DLC are often more impactful than their main game’s ending. In Witcher 3’s Blood and Wine, I found Geralt’s well-earned retirement to Toussaint far more satisfying and reflective than defeating the Wild Hunt. In Fallout: New Vegas’ Lonesome Road, I think Ulysses’ reflection on player choice and that “If war doesn’t change, men must change” elevates it beyond even the base game in terms of its meta significance to the Fallout series.

DLC is a unique opportunity to both compliment and separate, for developers to shine light where there was no opportunity in the main game, but also create another layer of meaning which improves that base experience. Most significant of all, DLC offers us a chance to say goodbye: one last adventure or mission to grant catharsis, to both rationalise and commemorate the impact a game has on our lives.

SHEPARD’S BYE

Reflecting on base games with ineffectual endings, you’d struggle to come across a title more relevant than