Top 10 Most Important Mass Effect Decisions
Mass Effect 3 is coming out tomorrow in North America and gamers will finally get the chance to see how their decisions from Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 shape the final battle with the Reapers and the end of Commander Shepard’s story. To celebrate that, we here at VGutopia have banded together to come up with our top 10 list of the most important Mass Effect decisions. These decisions are the ones that we’re hoping will pay off for us one way or the other. We took into account how much of a story impact it would have and the gravity of the actual decision in making this list. Without further ado, here is our list.
10. Playing Mass Effect 2 as a Renegade, Paragon, or Something in the Middle.
Mass Effect 2 was all about building a team that could head through the Omega 4 relay and do the impossible together. To make that team strong, Shepard had to win over all of the squad members by doing a little favor for them in the form of a loyalty mission. Many of these missions involved a moral dilemma that Shepard had to make a decision on that could make the squad member non-loyal.
However, Shepard could do almost whatever they wanted and still gain the squad member’s loyalty if they had a high enough intimidate or charm factor. Miranda and Jack squaring off, Zaeed wanting to let the civilians die to get to Vido, or any number of other dilemmas could be skirted around if Shepard had a high Paragon or Renegade score.
Why this is important:
Squad loyalty had a factor in the survival of some squad members at the end of Mass Effect 2 and could have some effect on Shepard’s ability to re-recruit these squad members in Mass Effect 3. Will Jacob or Miranda be as willing to help Shepard now that they’re back with the Alliance if they didn’t gain their loyalty? This might not have the biggest impact on the galactic war but it could possibly have some repercussions for side quests in Mass Effect 3 that feature the Mass Effect 2 squad members.
9. Quarian-Geth War
The Quarian people and the Geth have been at odds since almost the beginning of the Geth’s existence with the Quarians using the Geth as cheap labor and the Geth wanting to have independence as self-aware entities. The Geth and Quarians fought a bloody war that ended with the Quarians fleeing their homeworld and living on a massive migrant fleet of ships.
In Mass Effect 2, it’s clear when Shepard visits the Flotilla that many Quarians are sick and tired of being away from their home planet where they didn’t need to live in enviro suits and weren’t constantly on the run. There are rumors of war abound, especially among the Quarian admirals, and Shepard can either urge war or peace for the time being.
Why this is important:
With the discovery of Legion and the fact that the Geth are in two different groups, there is a lot more grey area with the Geth. They might be allies against the Reapers that Shepard could use. The Quarians and the Geth have a complicated situation going on but with the Reapers invading, a full-scale war between the two could leave both sides too weak to help Shepard or themselves when the Reapers appear.
8. Maelon’s Genophage Data
The Salarian people created a genetic sterilization virus called the genophage that was meant to quell the numbers of the Krogan after the Rachni Wars. Mordin Solus led up a team to re-vamp the genophage after the Krogan population began to show signs of resiliency to the effects.
Maelon was on Mordin’s team and his conscience began to bother him to the point of heading to the Krogan home world of Tuchanka so he could find a cure for the genophage. Mordin calls out Maelon’s research methods as unacceptable and chases him away from the facility (or kills him, depending on Shepard’s interference or lack thereof)
Why this is important:
The genophage is one of the defining characteristics of the Krogan people and curing the genophage is something that many Krogan would like to see so their numbers can begin to swell again. More importantly, that data could be used to convince the Krogan people to help Shepard in retaking Earth. If Shepard holds a trump card like that for the Krogan, he could offer it up as a token of goodwill or use it as a ransom for their help. If the data is destroyed, there could be trust issues if the Krogan should ever find out that you destroyed the data. Convincing them to destroy Saren’s cure would be a lot easier than convincing them that destroying the data Maelon collected was the right thing to do. It could make an alliance with the Krogans even more difficult.
7. The Alarei Situation
In Mass Effect 2 Tali’s father conducts some illegal experiments on active Geth that lead to a Geth seizure of the research ship and his own death. These experiments were aimed at finding a way to take back the Quarian homeworld from the Geth and could have proven to be useful for the more war-minded Quarians in the Flotilla.
Shepard has the choice of lying to the Quarian Conclave or telling them about the evidence that they found on the Alarei and basically assuring the posthumous exile of Tali’s father. Tali pleads with Shepard to not reveal the evidence, even if it leads to her exile.
Why this is important:
If Shepard lies to the Conclave they can either convince the Admiralty Board to find Tali innocent or Tali will be found guilty and exiled. If they tell them what happened, it splits the Quarian people down the middle and leads to more talk of war and, as we discussed above, that wouldn’t be too great.
6. Wrex’s Fate on Virmire
Urdnot Wrex and Shepard go through a bit of a tense scene on Virmire in Mass Effect when Wrex finds out that Saren has been breeding a Krogan army. This can only mean that Saren has discovered a genophage cure and Shepard plans to destroy the base of operations, which would also mean the loss of the cure.
Shepard can have a chat with Wrex and eventually Wrex will pull out his shotgun and threaten to kill Shepard to stop them from destroying the cure. Shepard can kill him, have Ashley kill him, or talk him down and gain Wrex’s loyalty to the cause.
Why this is important:
Wrex becomes a bit of a bigshot among the Krogan people in Mass Effect 2. He plans to unite the clans and share fertile females for the growth of the race. If Wrex is killed on Virmire, Wrex’s brother replaces him and informs Shepard that the Krogan respect them because they’re an avowed enemy of the Krogan people. Being an avowed enemy of the Krogan isn’t the best way to win them over for the fight against the Reapers and the Krogan could be a powerful ally.
5. The Rachni Queen
The Rachni are a supposedly extinct race of bug creatures that the Krogan were used to defeat thousands of years before the Mass Effect series. The Krogan were brought up from their homeworld before they were ready for space travel and their violent tendency allowed for them to purge the Rachni but also led to the Salarian’s use of the genophage.
Shepard encounters a Rachni Queen on Noveria in Mass Effect and has the choice of either letting the Queen go with her brood or killing the Queen with the acid in her holding tank. The Queen promises that she is different than the violent Rachni of the past and won’t cause the galaxy any harm if released.
Why this is important:
Saving the Rachni from extinction on Noveria could have a profound impact on the war against the Reapers since the Rachni could be a powerful ally. Also, if Shepard saved the Rachni the Queen will send a message to them via an Asari on Illium in Mass Effect 2 saying that the Rachni won’t forget what they did for them and promising their aid “against the coming darkness.”
4. Squad Orders During the Suicide Mission
During the final assault on the Collector base in Mass Effect 2 Shepard is called upon to assign tasks to multiple members of the crew on several occasions. These choices range from who will escort the crew back to the Normandy to who will hold up the biotic shield in the seeker swarm infested tunnel. These orders will deeply affect the survival of members of the squad.
If Shepard picks the wrong person for the job then they will likely die while trying to perform their task or could possibly lead to the death of multiple other people in certain scenarios.
Why this is important:
The very survival of some of the main characters from the Mass Effect universe hangs on these decisions by Shepard so they are quite important. What happens if Garrus and Tali (two confirmed squad members for Mass Effect 3) die? Will Shepard’s squad just be that much smaller? How will it affect the overall story without the help of those characters? The questions are numerous and the answers are just a day away.
3. Fate of the Geth Heretics
In Mass Effect 2 Shepard recruits a Geth named Legion that serves as a body for a group of thousands of Geth personalities. Legion’s loyalty mission takes the Normandy to a Geth ship where a group called the heretics (the Geth splinter group that followed the Reapers and the Geth that Shepard fought in Mass Effect) have acquired a Reaper virus that could turn all of the Geth into followers of the Reapers.
Legion and Shepard head to the heretic space station to neutralize the heretics but Legion suggests an alternative. Instead of simply killing all the Geth heretics, the virus could be re-worked to peacefully re-integrate all of the heretics into the main Geth group that is opposed to the Reapers. Legion asks Shepard to make the choice since a consensus could not be made among the Geth personalities.
Why this is important:
The Geth are an extremely powerful force in the galaxy. They hold advanced technology, don’t need to eat or sleep, and possess an extreme intelligence. The Geth can be an extremely powerful ally in the fight against the Reapers because they are also AIs that could interface with Reaper technology or even Reapers themselves without being as susceptible to indoctrination as organics would be. Rewriting the heretics would mean that the total Geth force would be more powerful and that could mean the difference between victory and defeat. If the heretics are destroyed, then the Reapers won’t have the help from the heretics but the force of the “good” Geth won’t be nearly as strong and could lead to a diminished contribution in the final battle.
2. Fate of the Council
At the battle of the Citadel, Shepard is able to use the Conduit to find a backdoor into the Citadel and confront Saren as he attempts to let Sovereign open up the mass relay and bring the rest of the Reapers from dark space. Shepard stops Saren and is able to open a communication channel with the Normandy.
Joker informs Shepard that the Normandy has regrouped with the entire Alliance fleet and is ready to come to the aid of the Destiny Ascension (the Citadel Fleet’s flagship, which is transporting the Council) if Shepard will just unlock the relays around the Citadel. Shepard can let the human fleet come in to save the Council or can tell them to wait and save their strength to take down Sovereign.
Why this is important:
If Shepard saves the Council at the end of Mass Effect, the people of the galaxy are more trusting of them and humanity as a whole. This will make it a lot easier to win over the people of the galaxy to come to humanity’s aid when Earth is attacked. If the Council is left to die, the humans seize control and the other races distrust humanity even more. This could lead many races to not want to help humanity since when they needed humanity to stick its neck out for them, they didn’t.
1. The Collector Base
In Mass Effect 2 it’s revealed that the Collectors are actually genetically and technologically modified Protheans that are being used by the Reapers. The Reapers gave the Collectors tons of advanced technology, allowing them to operate a base in the middle of the galactic core, surrounded by black holes.
At the end of the suicide mission, Shepard is given the choice of releasing a radiation pulse to kill the remaining Collectors and leave the base intact for the Illusive Man to study or rigging the base to explode, destroying any chances of using the technology against the Reapers.
Why this is important:
The Illusive Man will be quite annoyed with Shepard if they destroy the base but what that does do is stop Cerberus from getting their hands on some of the most advanced and powerful technology in the galaxy. The Illusive Man and Cerberus are enemies in Mass Effect 3, and giving them the base could come back to bite Shepard and the galaxy in a huge way.
Those are our top ten most important decisions in the Mass Effect series so far. How these decisions will actually affect the plot of Mass Effect 3 and the final confrontation with the Reapers is unknown right now, but it would be hard to see these choices as inconsequential in the grand scheme. One thing is for sure: Shepard will need all the help they can get and making the right choices along the way will help that quite a bit.
Did we miss any? Do you disagree with our ordering? Let us know what you think in the comments below and also let us know how you handled these choices. Mass Effect 3 comes out tomorrow, March 6th, in North America on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Check out our preview of Mass Effect 3 here and check back soon for even more Mass Effect content.
Written By: James Pungello
Edited By: Elaine Nicholson
Additional Help: Joshua Mobley and Matt Mobley
Buy Mass Effect 3
James Pungello
Latest posts by James Pungello (see all)
- Batman: Arkham Origins Trailer- Upon Further Review - May 20, 2013
- Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Review - May 6, 2013
- Star Trek Review - April 25, 2013
- Maybe It’s Time to Take a Step Back - April 20, 2013