Poll: Best Mass Effect Moral Conundrum

[Bebus]

I personally thought the Reaper question from that list, although the choices in game were ridiculous. Why couldn't I use it to prove to the council everything is true? Or hand it over to the Alliance?

Anyway, I love ME but having real limitations in game just because you hadn't clicked the red option enough always bugged me. I much prefer Dragon Age's "moral choice" system, as all it does is affect people around you, not your own character's ability to scare/charm people. I want to play the game through as I would do it, but having the nagging feeling that I am going to miss out on an important conversation option if I didn't choose good/bad always ruined that.

 

[Bobbity]

The Geth Heretic decision is probably the best, but I'd already made up my mind to brainwash them by the time I'd reached the control room. I could have justified my decision in a lot of ways, and there were even more in which I was at fault, but it really came down to how much I wanted to defeat the Reapers. I was very surprised when I got Paragon points for my decision though I'd been preparing to take a negative hit...

Anyways, I found the Ashley/Kaidan choice to be the most difficult. One the one hand, I've sent Kaidan off with the Salarians, and I'd meant to get them out, but Ashley would have had to stay behind and die. I spent literally ten minutes sitting there, dumbfounded. In the end, I went with Kaidan solely on the basis of saving the Salarians too.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

A lot of the moral choices were dead ringers for me.

You simply can't let the Krogan breed uncontrolled. Garrus deserves revenge. Ashley is a racist, religious *****.

The one that really got me was (yet again) the Geth. On one hand, more dudes to fight the Reapers is always good, but at the same time, I think the Quarians should go to war and take back their homeworld and the Geth having more forces would make it harder. I eventually went with destruction since the Geth piss me off.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Title is self-explanatory as always. Please note that by "best", I mean the choice that you had to mull over for a while, one that truly made you think of what YOU would have done, what the consequences would be, and what others would do in the same situation, rather than thinking what's more beneficial to the gameplay in terms of paragon/renegade points or such.

There were some morality choices that I didn't add, like Zaeed's loyalty mission, because there wasn't room. If you think of another, feel free to write-in options.

The best morality choice I had to make during the second game was whether or not to buy the third game.
I thought "well, maybe they might go back to the previous formula where the game was interesting, required some intelligence and had alot more depth", and then I realised "no, they will just pander to the masses and go with whatever draws the ost cash"
Then I saw the trailer of the Reapers invading Earth and was able to easily make up my mind ^^
IE, my moral dilema is solved.
Not buying Mass effect III
-Tabs<3-

 

[Devil's Due]

The hardest choice was actually the downloadable expansion in Mass Effect 2 where you had to choose between allowing a special-needs human being used as a test subject by his own brother cruelly, but in turn the test subject was being taken good care of and watched over by medical care extensively and the data they gather would be able to possible shut down all Geth (or something similiar), by overriding them.

Sure the clear moral option is to release the brother who doesn't have a choice, but dang did the other brother put a compelling argument about leaving him there. (Being taken care of by medical staff, amazing data, cared for deeply by all staff, protected by security, etc)

I'm surprised no one answered this, as when it released it was the biggest moral issue on the Mass Effect forums for months. I guess most don't buy into the add-ons for the games anymore.

 

[Josh123914]

Definately the Geth mission. You're either killing them or essentially brain-washing them.

Neither of them take the moral high ground.

Except for the fact that the game outright tells you that killing them is evil and brain-washing is good.

Not really. Legion's telling you that he is 51% sure brainwashing is the right path does not equate to "outright telling you that killing them is evil".

Nope, but the +10 Renegade does.

wow renegades suck, I got +30 paragon for the brainwashing, but maybe having Tali on my team and her recommending Brainwashing may have had a Mass(ive) Effect(ba-dum-tish)

 

[Morbira]

On my first play-through, during the Ashley/Kaiden choice, the game led me to believe that I might be able to walk away with both of them intact, so I chose to go help Ashley thinking that she was unstable and emotional and that Kaiden would at least keep his cool long enough for me to save him. Lo and behold, Ashley is saved, Kaiden blows up with the base. Worst part is I can't even stand Ashley; she's a total *****. : c

Anyways, I found the Ashley/Kaidan choice to be the most difficult. One the one hand, I've sent Kaidan off with the Salarians, and I'd meant to get them out, but Ashley would have had to stay behind and die. I spent literally ten minutes sitting there, dumbfounded. In the end, I went with Kaidan solely on the basis of saving the Salarians too.

I did the exact same thing, only the Salarians STILL LIVED! How's that for bullshit?

 

[WolfThomas]

The Krogan cure. Ashley/Kaidan was hard, but I chose Kaidan because he was at the bomb, I used him in my squad more and I thought losing Ashley whom I was romancing made the story more serious and my romance with Liara more bittersweet.

But the Krogan cure still I can't decide on, the genophage is a horrible thing to do to a people but on the other hand the Krogans would just spread all across the galaxy because their long lives and high breeding rates.

 

[CleverCover]

ME 1: Save the Council/Laughing as the Geth Blow that S#!T up
Save the bastards that never believed in you, ridiculed you, called you delusional and sacrifice human ships that could be used later or save them and in return get the Council Races to hold you in much higher regard and are much more willing to work with you. And hopefully next game they'll believe in you more. (YEAH RIGHT.)

ME 2: Rewriting the Geth/Destroying the Heretics
Destroy the enemies you had in the first game, the ones that possibly helped lead to the death of your teammate, the ones that killed many people, humans and aliens alike but lose a possible powerful force that can help you in the fight against the Reapers. And destroying them might weaken them greatly when the Quarians show up with their ships.

These choices are the reasons I have a bajillion saves.

 

[Baneat]

Geth thing I was like

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

 

[Jay Knowles]

when i got to the save/rewrite the geth heretic mission it took me at least five minutes to decide. for the record i chose to kill them...
the only thing i didn't like was how it tied it into a paragon/renegade decision, i was playing through as a paragon, and the paragon decision was to rewrite them. my argument is, if i was in their shoes, faced with either death, or having someone else's will forced upon me and everyone i cared about with no choice at all on the matter, i would rather die.

i think the game could be improved by having these complex and moral choices left in, but having the paragon/renegade bar removed, and having our decisions change only the story, and not our the characters stats...

 

[HeySeansOnline]

The reaper base, I know it would be in The Illusive Man's hands, so I couldn't trust what he might do. The reapers were coming and I just blew up the galaxy's trump card. But who knows what he would do, wage war on the galaxy to make humanity a master race, betray and kill Shepard.

Though I don't get why I can't just call up Anderson and be all like "Hey man, there's this evil guy, I have two of his top agents on my side who can give you a pretty good shot at finding his location, plus I have an amazing team who could easily hunt down and stop him. Oh and I found a Collector base, get some tech nerds there to retro-build us some fancy shit."

Though who knows what indoctrination causing stuff might be there ...

 

[fdbluth]

Ok, OP here. Read the replies and thought I should give my two cents on the options and why I thought they were important.

Save/Destroy Rachni - As someone previously has mentioned, it's that doubt, that feeling that the queen might just be lying to you, that you are releasing something that may become a bigger threat than Saren (you didn't know what reapers were at the time).

Save Ashley/Kaidan - Personally, I liked the two characters. I don't see Ashley as racist, just inexperienced with alien relations or ignorant, at the worst. She doesn't actively hate aliens, she has her doubts, which is understandable given her family background. Kaidan has a right to be a whiny *****, because his childhood has been mostly ruined by those in power, trying to push and control him to become a good little soldier; a much milder version of Jack, in my opinion. And as someone else has previously mentioned, it narrowed down to who was your love interest. If you wanted to have a romance with Ashley/Kaidan, then you would be saving that person for selfish reasons.

Save/Abandon the Council - Really just the question of unity/solidarity, between all sentient species or humanity. Since Cerberus was a big point in the second game, I see it as having significance.

Allow/Dissuade Garrus from killing (both 1 & 2) - I believe in a difference between justice and vengeance. Garrus was pursuing vengeance, in the guise of justice for others, which discomforted me a bit. I am a bit surprised that not a lot of people doesn't feel this way, actually. In hindsight, I could've replaced this one with something else, huh?

Rewrite/Destroy Geth Heretic - Well, you know the reason.

Save/Destroy work on Krogan genophage cure (in Mordin's loyalty mission) - Again, you know the reason.

Samara/Morinth - This is interesting in two ways to me. First, as a paragon, would you be comfortable with a warrior priest with the strictest of dogmas trying to kill someone (albeit a serial killer) for a birth defect? Second, as a renegade, Samara actually mentions that she would kill you without a doubt if she were to meet Shepard after the Reapers based on her actions. Would you let a killer live to save your own self, given (what seems to be) your only chance?

Save/Destroy Reaper base - Well, you know, the loss of humanity for power, all that stuff.

Also, for those mentioned:

Tali's trial - I can see how hard the question is, whether to expose a certain and definite crime or say nothing to save a comrade from shame? To be honest, if anything, I thought people would be about persuading the quarians to make peace or go to war.

Side mission on euthanization - Granted, I never thought about this at all. I thought this was pretty straightforward, what with the man facing certain death even if he were to float through space (since power/nutrient/oxygen would run out sometime in the future). But if that factor was left out, then yeah, sure, it's a question worth asking. Since there was nothing to suggest the man's opinion on the subject, or a signed DNR statement or something.

 

[fdbluth]

I did the exact same thing, only the Salarians STILL LIVED! How's that for bullshit?

I believe I cursed at Kirrahe for about five minutes after finding that out the first time. It's too bad me yelling at the computer screen does nothing to the line-holding son-of-a-*****.

 

[Entamrik]

The Geth rewriting wasn't a problem for me at all because, well, I used evidence. They split off because of a math error, they literally cannot change their minds (sounds like brainwashing to me) and they're not alive. They may think, but they don't have any forms of emotion. If they did, that would be the problem, but the only concern I see is 'should they be stronger'.
In the mission, if you choose 'they're just machines' at the first talk, Leigon says that all races should be treated different and applying human morality is being racist. The geth inadvertently agree with rewriting.

Oh, and Save/Destroy the council, back when I ignorantly thought "They have to give me political favours for saving their lives" Dumb fucks.

 

[Woodsey]

I think the Garrus ones are perhaps best for being able to shape the character, since he can interpret what you've said in a way that's different to how you wanted him to take it.

For example, I explained to him in the first game that it was important to stop at nothing to stop Saren, but in the second he uses that and becomes one cold biatch.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Well I was playing as a paragon, so most of my moral choices were dictated as such. But the only one that really wasn't was Ashley or Kaiden. I'd grown fairly attached to both of them, but chose the kill Ashley on the grounds of her being a complete up-herself *****. That sure showed her a lesson in passively pissing me off (Feelsgoodman)

This. But the final straw was that she shot Wrex.

 

[delroland]

Samara/Morinth - This is interesting in two ways to me. First, as a paragon, would you be comfortable with a warrior priest with the strictest of dogmas trying to kill someone (albeit a serial killer) for a birth defect? Second, as a renegade, Samara actually mentions that she would kill you without a doubt if she were to meet Shepard after the Reapers based on her actions. Would you let a killer live to save your own self, given (what seems to be) your only chance?

Samara wasn't trying to kill Morinth for a birth defect, but rather because Morinth used that birth defect to go on a murderous killing spree throughout the galaxy. Keep in mind that both of her other daughters suffer from the same defect, and she's not trying to put them down.

As for the renegade thing, that can't have come as much of a surprise. When you're throwing dudes out of windows because it's more convenient than talking to them, you can't expect the Lawful Good types to throw you a high five.

 

[Flig]

I tie for me between the Geth and Genophage, though I voted genophage because I spent a little more time on that one.

The only problem with ME's moral choices is the binary Paragon/Renegade point system. It wouldn't bug me so much if the ME2 didn't require you to have large amounts of one or the other to keep everybody loyal.

 

[Protocol95]

For me it was the Genophage. I knew I didn't want to destroy the research but I wasn't sure if Mordin should work on it. I thought about for a bit but ultimately decided on keeping the research but not using it.