Avant-garde class. Colonist. Sole survivor. Paragon.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition is out tomorrow and I’m very dizzy with excitement that I’m going to reunite with some of my best friends in the galaxy in Baby Bottom Smooth HD. The main incentive of Mass effect (outside of its stellar cast of characters) is that it’s a game that is meant to be played multiple times and in different ways to see all of the twists and turns of the narrative. Although my love for Mass effect The trilogy is as deep and big as the galaxy itself. I make the same decisions every time I play. Same class, same background, same romances and not even the arrival of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition is enough to make me change
The choices I have made and continue to make are not particularly controversial or deviant. My Shepard is a “good” role model who never says or does anything that cannot be expected from a good soldier. (Though I will always choose the “bad” rogue interrupts that let me shoot the gas tank under the krogan during Mordin’s loyalty mission and the one who lets me Slide the Eclipse mercenary out of a window during Thane’s recruiting mission in ME2. They are too funny to ignore because of my role model virtues.) My Shepard is always the Vanguard class with the Colonial background and the only survivor’s psychological profile. I don’t know why I am particularly attached to these choices, although I can safely say that I chose the Vanguard class only for its biotic charging ability, because how could you not?
Save the Feros Colony. Save the Rachni Queen. Save Wrex. Leave Ashley Williams on Virmire.
I would like to believe that most of my decisions were made based on practical considerations to help me get the best ending. in the ME2A fully loyal crew – supported by a maximum Paragon score – will (mostly) see to it that they all to survive the suicide mission. I also save Maelon’s data because it ensures that Eve, the krogan woman, survives the tests needed to cure the krogan genophage. I don’t change these decisions because I’m a good person and doing anything else (like refusing to cure the genophage) would doom me to the fiery pits of Hell. What kind of monster does not cure the genophage?
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Romance Kaiden. Save the rise of fate.
There are several minor decisions I could make that won’t affect the end of the game, but I still refuse to stray from my path. I will always save Conrad Verner from his own stupidity. I buy fish for my tank in ME2 Then neglect to feed them to make sure they always die. (OK maybe something are in fact different from my decisions.) These decisions mean nothing, they have no lasting consequences, and yet I am forced to keep making them. I am not in the least ashamed of it.
To be fair I have tries make different decisions. I told Thane and added a little rogue chocolate to my Paragon peanut butter. During the same deviating playthrough, I killed Samara because I found her daughter Morinth’s reasoning more convincing. Then I died myself, convinced by Morinth that I could survive her sexy but deadly mind-meld. (It is Mass effect Tradition, don’t ask.)
Romance Garrus. All loyal crew. Save the Collector Base. Save the quarians and the geth.
I didn’t enjoy the experience. Not because I didn’t like being angry. (I did) or because I thought Thane’s romance was less well written than Garrus’. (It’s not that Thane’s romance is far more tragically romantic, which is more personally engaging.) It just didn’t feel like it me. Mass effect is like my morning coffee, i need it in a certain way or my whole day is shot.
The Mass Effect series (yes, you too Andromeda) is something very special for me. It’s the series I always choose as my answer to the hypothetical question, “If you could erase your memory of a game just to relive it”. Play Mass Effect Legendary Edition With its shiny new upgrades and improvements, I’m the closest thing to this hypothetical “mind wipe” scenario and despite the plethora of options ahead of me, I’ll make my usual choices and be damn proud of them.
Heal the genophage. Romance Garrus (again). To destroy.
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