Mass Effect's Toughest Choices Players Will Have to Make Again in the Legendary Edition
The release of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is expected to happen in just a few months, and fans are gearing up to experience an old favorite in a new way. The Mass Effect games are known as some of the best story-heavy action-RPGs out there, and they're full of important choices that affect the ultimate outcome of the game.
Not only are many of the choices in Mass Effect important they're also notoriously difficult, designed to tug on the heartstrings of players as they make their decisions. Here are the toughest choices from the original Mass Effect trilogy that players will have to make again when they play the Legendary Edition.
During the first Mass Effect, Shepard discovers that the Rachni are not as extinct as most people believe. There's a Rachni queen in captivity, and it's up to Shepard to determine what to do with her. Now, the Rachni are infamous for abruptly starting a war, attacking all sentient races roughly a thousand years previously. Thus, the decision on whether to kill or spare this queen is something Shepard shouldn't do lightly. The risk is that sparing one queen will lead to another siege of Rachni in the future, if she decides to renew the war of her people. On the other hand, this queen promises that she will not and merely wants to find a space to raise her children in peace.
Later in the game, during the Virmire mission, Shepard will be faced with an even more difficult decision: which member of their crew to save. There's no saving both. Either Kaidan Alenko or Ashley Williams will end up dying on Virmire, and it's up to Shepard to determine who to save and who to leave behind. This decision is especially difficult because not only are both Kaidan and Ashley friends of Shepard by this point, but there's no "right" or "wrong" answer. It's purely a matter of who the player would rather save. And, not surprisingly, this decision carries over into the other games as well, since either Kaidan or Ashley (whoever lives) makes return appearances in ME2 and ME3. So, whatever players choose, it'll come back to haunt or help them.
At the end of the first Mass Effect, Shepard will have one last big decision to make: whether to bring in the human armies to save the Council (at the cost of many human lives), or to hold the human armies back for when Sovereign in vulnerable at the cost of the current Council. It may be tempting to sacrifice the Council, since they're not exactly supportive of Shepard's Reaper theories, but saving them can ultimately help Shepard, if that's what they choose to do.
At the end of the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2, Shepard has one final choice to make: whether to destroy the Collector base or save it, as the Illusive Man wants. Although the base is abhorrent, with the skeleton of a reaper constructed from the actual flesh, bone, and DNA of humans, it could be used to further understand and, perhaps, hold off the reapers from reaching their goals. On the other hand, being such an abomination, perhaps the base is best just destroyed. Whatever Shepard chooses will be reflected in the final installment of the trilogy, Mass Effect 3.
One of the first huge decisions of Mass Effect 3 pertains to the krogan, the salarians, and the genophage, an engineered affliction that renders the majority of krogan unable to produce children. The price for the krogans' aid against the reapers is simple: a cure for the genophage must be engineered and released. But the salarians, desperate to prevent this from happening, make a counter-offer: lie to the krogan, pretend the cure is real, but secretly sabotage it so that the krogan are placated for the moment yet left without a true cure.
It's a cruel move, but one that Shepard must consider for the sake of the human race and diplomacy with the salarians; what will best-serve the war effort? And the galaxy after the war? The decision, and the consequences, are left to Shepard.
Later on in the game, Shepard takes on the monumental task of ending a war between the quarians and the geth. Now, if Shepard's paragon or renegade points are high enough, the solution to this is simple: convince both sides to stand down and work together for the greater good. But if Shepard doesn't have enough paragon or renegade, things quickly become much more complicated.
Without a way to spearhead a truce, Shepard must truly choose one side over the other and whichever side Shepard doesn't choose is ultimately doomed. There are the quarians; organic people (like humanity) with a claim to Rannoch, as it is their home planet. Moreover, Shepard has a friend among the quarians, Tali. Then, there are the geth; synthetics created by the quarians who eventually developed their own consciousness, and a soul. Regardless of which side Shepard chooses (and which side Shepard forsakes), the results are truly gut-wrenching and emotional.
Lastly, there's the final decision of Mass Effect 3 and of the entire Mass Effect trilogy. Upon reaching the Crucible, Shepard must decide whether to destroy the reapers, control them, or synthesize, combining organic and synthetic life (including the reapers). Ultimately, there's no right or wrong, here; it's purely just left up to the player's sense of which ending would be best for their Shepard, and their playthrough. It's difficult, though, when considering that the ending can get pretty bleak without enough preparation - and even with preparation, there's definitely no solely "happy" ending to be found.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will be available Spring 2021 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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