10 Hardest Decisions in the Mass Effect Series
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VOICE OVER: Riccardo Tucci
WRITTEN BY: Caitlin Johnson
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we're looking at the hardest decisions in the “Mass Effect” series. For this video, we're looking at the most difficult moral dilemmas in all four “Mass Effect” games. Our list includes The Salarian Pathfinder “Mass Effect: Andromeda” (2017), The Rachni Queen “Mass Effect” (2007), The Suicide Mission “Mass Effect 2” (2010), Curing the Genophage “Mass Effect 3” (2012) and more!
Script written by Caitlin Johnson
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at the hardest decisions in the “Mass Effect” series. Which one made you want to reload a save and try again?
For this video, we’re looking at the most difficult moral dilemmas in all four “Mass Effect” games. Be warned, there are major spoilers ahead for the entire series.
Upon finally locating the Salarian Ark, Ryder discovers it’s in the hands of the Kett, and the Salarian Pathfinder Raeka along with many other Salarians are in grave danger. But it’s not as simple as just freeing the Salarians because the Kett have captured a group of Krogan scouts and are threatening to “exalt” them. Ryder needs to choose between saving the Krogan or saving the Salarians, and whichever group doesn’t get rescued will appear as part of the Kett forces for the rest of the game. The mutant Krogan are certainly the more dangerous enemies later on, but can you really afford to lose yet another Pathfinder?
Many years before humanity discovered the Mass Relays, the galaxy’s other major races were waging a long and brutal war against an insectoid race called the Rachni. The problem was that the Rachni, while intelligent, were impossible for other species to communicate with, leading to their complete eradication to end the war – or so it was thought. In “Mass Effect” you’ll stumble across the last remaining Rachni Queen and her hive, and it’s down to Shepard whether or not to save the Rachni or finish the job the Council started. Be careful, because whatever you choose will change not only how the Council treats Shepard, but what form the Rachni Queen’s return in “Mass Effect 3” will take.
The second game in the trilogy boasts one of the best finales in gaming history. It’s down to Shepard to finally storm the Collector Base and defeat Harbinger, and you have to choose who comes along and who does what job. In order to complete the mission with everybody alive, you’ve got to fully upgrade the Normandy, complete everybody’s loyalty mission, and make sure you ask them to fill the right role. But if you storm the base completely blind, you won’t know the specific requirements to completely master this mission, meaning you’ll have no idea who – if anybody – will survive. That’s what makes it such an intense, gripping, and emotional conclusion.
Ryder heads to the icy planet Voeld to clear it of Kett, and this time the Kett are focused closely on an archaeological excavation of an old Angaran city, Ja Niihk. Once you’ve battled your way through an icy cave you’ll stumble across a strange, ancient AI. But the AI clearly isn’t trustworthy, repeatedly lying to Ryder about being weak and powerless and then attempting to kill an Angaran. You’ve first got to choose whether to save the Angaran by killing the AI or letting the AI live but losing the Angaran, and then whether to take it back to the Nexus or send it to Aya for further study. The choice will come back to bite you in the final mission because the Angara can use the AI to help out.
Long before the games begin, a violent war between the Krogan and the Salarians led to the creation of the Genophage, an engineered plague that meant only 1 in 1000 Krogan births would survive. By “Mass Effect 2”, you’re wrangled into helping the Salarian Mordin, who worked on the Genophage, go after his rogue apprentice Maelon who’s trying to cure the Genophage – only he’s doing it through unethical experiments. Once you’ve dealt with Maelon you have a choice: do you destroy his data and thus hamper attempts to find a cure, which Mordin wants you to do, or do you preserve the data in the hope that one day the Krogan can be saved?
During Sovereign’s attack on the Citadel at the conclusion of the first game, Shepard has another tough call to make. Joker’s waiting in a nearby system with reinforcements from the Alliance and can come in to save the Council if Shepard unlocks the mass relays – or, alternatively, Shepard can let the Council die in favor of preserving the Alliance fleet for help taking down Sovereign. The Council has been frosty to humanity and a little distrustful of Shepard for the whole game so far, which will continue into the sequel if Shepard lets the original Council perish. Saving the Council cements humanity’s place in the galaxy, though lives will be sacrificed in the process.
You’re finally able to save the Angaran Moshae from the Kett facility she’s being held in, but Ryder is in for a grim discovery. The Kett are actually Angarans that have been captured and forcibly transformed into Kett, a process called “exaltation”. When you recover the Moshae you have a choice to make: you either save the Angara still trapped in the facility but leave it intact and potentially able to be used again, which is what Jaal wants you to do, or you destroy the facility but kill the Angara still trapped inside, which is what the Moshae wants you to do. It’s definitely a hard choice.
The Genophage makes its final return in “Mass Effect 3” where finally, after all this time, Shepard gets the opportunity to resolve it – which will be made easier or harder depending on what you did to Maelon’s data. You head to Tuchanka, the Krogan homeworld, to take advantage of a device called the Shroud to distribute the cure across the entire planet. But while Mordin now wants to undo the damage the Genophage he helped develop did, other Salarians will implore Shepard to sabotage the Shroud and make it so the Genophage continues. The Salarians are concerned that the warmongering Krogan could threaten the wellbeing of the galaxy, but is that risk worth destroying an entire species?
The Quarians may have created the Geth, but they’ve been at war for hundreds of years since the Geth rebelled – but you eventually learn that the Geth aren’t all bad. You end up with a Quarian, Tali, and a friendly Geth, Legion, on your team by the time this choice rolls around. Legion wants to give the Geth full intelligence but doing so will let them destroy the Quarian war fleet. Tali wants you to stop Legion, so you lose the support of the Geth in the war against the Reapers. Whoever you betray will die. There’s a third option to broker peace but only if you met some very specific requirements in “Mass Effect 2” – for a lot of people, all they got was this painful dilemma.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few Honorable Mentions:
After five years of wondering how this immense conflict between the organic races and the synthetic Reapers would play out, we were finally given the resolution in the form of one last choice in “Mass Effect 3”: the only problem was that all the options were terrible. The first one, destroy, saw Shepard destroy not only the Reapers but all synthetic life in the galaxy; the second saw Shepard seize control of the Reapers to continue their cycle of wiping out intelligent life; and the third, which merges organic and synthetic life, was only unlockable if you had enough military power. The backlash was so strong that BioWare edited it and added a “refuse” ending where you choose none of them.
Hardest Decisions In Mass Effect Series
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at the hardest decisions in the “Mass Effect” series. Which one made you want to reload a save and try again?
For this video, we’re looking at the most difficult moral dilemmas in all four “Mass Effect” games. Be warned, there are major spoilers ahead for the entire series.
The Salarian Pathfinder
“Mass Effect: Andromeda” (2017)
Upon finally locating the Salarian Ark, Ryder discovers it’s in the hands of the Kett, and the Salarian Pathfinder Raeka along with many other Salarians are in grave danger. But it’s not as simple as just freeing the Salarians because the Kett have captured a group of Krogan scouts and are threatening to “exalt” them. Ryder needs to choose between saving the Krogan or saving the Salarians, and whichever group doesn’t get rescued will appear as part of the Kett forces for the rest of the game. The mutant Krogan are certainly the more dangerous enemies later on, but can you really afford to lose yet another Pathfinder?
The Rachni Queen
“Mass Effect” (2007)
Many years before humanity discovered the Mass Relays, the galaxy’s other major races were waging a long and brutal war against an insectoid race called the Rachni. The problem was that the Rachni, while intelligent, were impossible for other species to communicate with, leading to their complete eradication to end the war – or so it was thought. In “Mass Effect” you’ll stumble across the last remaining Rachni Queen and her hive, and it’s down to Shepard whether or not to save the Rachni or finish the job the Council started. Be careful, because whatever you choose will change not only how the Council treats Shepard, but what form the Rachni Queen’s return in “Mass Effect 3” will take.
The Suicide Mission
“Mass Effect 2” (2010)
The second game in the trilogy boasts one of the best finales in gaming history. It’s down to Shepard to finally storm the Collector Base and defeat Harbinger, and you have to choose who comes along and who does what job. In order to complete the mission with everybody alive, you’ve got to fully upgrade the Normandy, complete everybody’s loyalty mission, and make sure you ask them to fill the right role. But if you storm the base completely blind, you won’t know the specific requirements to completely master this mission, meaning you’ll have no idea who – if anybody – will survive. That’s what makes it such an intense, gripping, and emotional conclusion.
The Ancient AI
“Mass Effect: Andromeda” (2017)
Ryder heads to the icy planet Voeld to clear it of Kett, and this time the Kett are focused closely on an archaeological excavation of an old Angaran city, Ja Niihk. Once you’ve battled your way through an icy cave you’ll stumble across a strange, ancient AI. But the AI clearly isn’t trustworthy, repeatedly lying to Ryder about being weak and powerless and then attempting to kill an Angaran. You’ve first got to choose whether to save the Angaran by killing the AI or letting the AI live but losing the Angaran, and then whether to take it back to the Nexus or send it to Aya for further study. The choice will come back to bite you in the final mission because the Angara can use the AI to help out.
The Genophage Data
“Mass Effect 2” (2010)
Long before the games begin, a violent war between the Krogan and the Salarians led to the creation of the Genophage, an engineered plague that meant only 1 in 1000 Krogan births would survive. By “Mass Effect 2”, you’re wrangled into helping the Salarian Mordin, who worked on the Genophage, go after his rogue apprentice Maelon who’s trying to cure the Genophage – only he’s doing it through unethical experiments. Once you’ve dealt with Maelon you have a choice: do you destroy his data and thus hamper attempts to find a cure, which Mordin wants you to do, or do you preserve the data in the hope that one day the Krogan can be saved?
The Council
“Mass Effect” (2007)
During Sovereign’s attack on the Citadel at the conclusion of the first game, Shepard has another tough call to make. Joker’s waiting in a nearby system with reinforcements from the Alliance and can come in to save the Council if Shepard unlocks the mass relays – or, alternatively, Shepard can let the Council die in favor of preserving the Alliance fleet for help taking down Sovereign. The Council has been frosty to humanity and a little distrustful of Shepard for the whole game so far, which will continue into the sequel if Shepard lets the original Council perish. Saving the Council cements humanity’s place in the galaxy, though lives will be sacrificed in the process.
The Exaltation Facility
“Mass Effect: Andromeda” (2017)
You’re finally able to save the Angaran Moshae from the Kett facility she’s being held in, but Ryder is in for a grim discovery. The Kett are actually Angarans that have been captured and forcibly transformed into Kett, a process called “exaltation”. When you recover the Moshae you have a choice to make: you either save the Angara still trapped in the facility but leave it intact and potentially able to be used again, which is what Jaal wants you to do, or you destroy the facility but kill the Angara still trapped inside, which is what the Moshae wants you to do. It’s definitely a hard choice.
Curing the Genophage
“Mass Effect 3” (2012)
The Genophage makes its final return in “Mass Effect 3” where finally, after all this time, Shepard gets the opportunity to resolve it – which will be made easier or harder depending on what you did to Maelon’s data. You head to Tuchanka, the Krogan homeworld, to take advantage of a device called the Shroud to distribute the cure across the entire planet. But while Mordin now wants to undo the damage the Genophage he helped develop did, other Salarians will implore Shepard to sabotage the Shroud and make it so the Genophage continues. The Salarians are concerned that the warmongering Krogan could threaten the wellbeing of the galaxy, but is that risk worth destroying an entire species?
The Geth or the Quarians
“Mass Effect 3” (2012)
The Quarians may have created the Geth, but they’ve been at war for hundreds of years since the Geth rebelled – but you eventually learn that the Geth aren’t all bad. You end up with a Quarian, Tali, and a friendly Geth, Legion, on your team by the time this choice rolls around. Legion wants to give the Geth full intelligence but doing so will let them destroy the Quarian war fleet. Tali wants you to stop Legion, so you lose the support of the Geth in the war against the Reapers. Whoever you betray will die. There’s a third option to broker peace but only if you met some very specific requirements in “Mass Effect 2” – for a lot of people, all they got was this painful dilemma.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few Honorable Mentions:
Exile or Release the First Murderer, “Mass Effect: Andromeda” (2017)
Nilken Meant to Kill But Didn’t Succeed – Should He Be Punished or Not?
Rescue Koris or the Civilians, “Mass Effect 3” (2012)
Admiral Koris Wants You to Leave Him and Save Civilians, But He’s Vital to the War Effort.
Saving Ashley or Kaidan,“Mass Effect” (2007)
Do You Save the Experienced Soldier or Potential Love Interest?
The Ending
“Mass Effect 3” (2012)
After five years of wondering how this immense conflict between the organic races and the synthetic Reapers would play out, we were finally given the resolution in the form of one last choice in “Mass Effect 3”: the only problem was that all the options were terrible. The first one, destroy, saw Shepard destroy not only the Reapers but all synthetic life in the galaxy; the second saw Shepard seize control of the Reapers to continue their cycle of wiping out intelligent life; and the third, which merges organic and synthetic life, was only unlockable if you had enough military power. The backlash was so strong that BioWare edited it and added a “refuse” ending where you choose none of them.
