The Mass Effect 3 Breakdown (spoilers)

[Splitzi]

I have gone through ME2 and 3 so many times on so many different builds I don't even remember most of my decisions. I know that I killed Mordin at least twice, killed Wrex once on Virmire and once on the Citadel. On my ME1 playthrough I was an idiot and saved Kaiden, didn't romance anyone, and basically only played the main quest. However I cannot wait for the trilogy pack i just ordered to show up so I can complete all the games in one HUGE chunk.
And most importantly, I am a proud member of the Insanity Club.

 

[littlealicewhite]

27% of people saved the Quarians? That should probably read "27% of people weren't paying attention when it turned out that the Quarians were the bad guys in that conflict.".

Uh, no.

No no no no no no no no no.

How about "27% of people chose to give the persecuted if somewhat dickish people their home planet back instead of siding with the kitchen appliances and killing millions of mostly innocent people." Much more fitting.

Though obviously saving both is the best option.

OT:
Cool stats. A bit surprised at how few finished insanity. ME2 was far harder.

Though I did notice one stat that made me wonder something....

YOU CAN KILL VEGA? HOW TELL ME HOW RIGHT NOW.

Or, "27% of people chose to give the rightfully persecuted arseholes the planet instead of the relatively innocent, intelligent Geth"

More accurately, "27% of people gave the planet back to the people who have been wrongfully persecuted by most of the galaxy and only wanted their home back and picked the living, mostly innocent people in their fleet over the peices of hardware, only one of which even comes close to approaching life"

......Ok, these are getting too long. Can we just drop the pretense and argue about this properly?

OK fine. Every single bad thing that happened to the Quarians they brought on themselves. They enslaved a race of synthetic beings, then tried to commit genocide on them when they realised they were intelligent. They fled the planet because the Geth defended themselves, then spent centuries without a home, despite the fact that the Geth were perfectly willing to negotiate the entire time, the Quarians just never asked. Then, at the climax of the war, the Quarians (Admittedly just one extremist but the rest of the fleet would have followed) decided to continue trying to commit said genocide, despite the fact that they know peace is possible. If they go through with this, the Geth are forced to defend themselves. And finally, if the Quarians are able to commit genocide, they all celebrate by throwing a fucking party celebrating the unjust destruction of an intelligent race. If the Geth win, they express sorrow that it has come to this.

Whereas your argument is: They're synthetic, so they don't matter.

I agree with you.

The destruction of the Geth superstructure was, in my opinion, one of the greatest war crimes ever commited in that universe, excluding the Reapers' usual programme of death an destruction. That structure was their future. It was everything they were striving toward, everything they had ever wanted.

The Quarians had given exactly zero fucks what it was, it was a Geth structure. And just as they had in the Morning War, they acted out of fear and with no understanding what they were doing. Don't get me wrong, I don't think the Quarians are evil, or deserve to be wiped out, I just think they're wrong. And if I have to choose between them or the Geth, I will choose the Geth.

 

[Product Placement]

They enslaved a race of synthetic beings

To be perfectly fair, the Quarians built the Geth, using a design that under no normal circumstances, would have been considered a synthetic living being.

Then, after much modification, where the Geth had been optimized to share their processing power in large groups, we ended up with units that started asking themselves philosophical questions. Now from the Quarian perspective, that transition must have been incredibly subtle and surprising, when they suddenly realized what they were dealing with. Imagine one day getting into your car and having your GPS asking you why you never take it where it wants to go.

Also, if you payed attention to the mission, where Shepard linked into the Geth network, you should have noticed that the war didn't officially start as a war between the Quarians and the Geth, it was between Quarians afraid of what the Geth were becoming and Quarians who wanted to see their evolution continue. Now, how likely do you think a similar conflict might end up taking place on our world?

Initially, the still developing Geth consciousness was very confused about what was happening and only ended up taking arms because the Quarians supporting their development explained to them that they had a right to defend themselves. If not for those who first fought for the Geth, there would have been no Geth resistance.

So while you can easily demonize the Quarians for the crimes that you accuse them off, remember that there would be no Geth if not for the Quarians.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

27% of people saved the Quarians? That should probably read "27% of people weren't paying attention when it turned out that the Quarians were the bad guys in that conflict.".

Uh, no.

No no no no no no no no no.

How about "27% of people chose to give the persecuted if somewhat dickish people their home planet back instead of siding with the kitchen appliances and killing millions of mostly innocent people." Much more fitting.

Though obviously saving both is the best option.

OT:
Cool stats. A bit surprised at how few finished insanity. ME2 was far harder.

Though I did notice one stat that made me wonder something....

YOU CAN KILL VEGA? HOW TELL ME HOW RIGHT NOW.

Or, "27% of people chose to give the rightfully persecuted arseholes the planet instead of the relatively innocent, intelligent Geth"

More accurately, "27% of people gave the planet back to the people who have been wrongfully persecuted by most of the galaxy and only wanted their home back and picked the living, mostly innocent people in their fleet over the peices of hardware, only one of which even comes close to approaching life"

......Ok, these are getting too long. Can we just drop the pretense and argue about this properly?

OK fine. Every single bad thing that happened to the Quarians they brought on themselves. They enslaved a race of synthetic beings, then tried to commit genocide on them when they realised they were intelligent. They fled the planet because the Geth defended themselves, then spent centuries without a home, despite the fact that the Geth were perfectly willing to negotiate the entire time, the Quarians just never asked. Then, at the climax of the war, the Quarians (Admittedly just one extremist but the rest of the fleet would have followed) decided to continue trying to commit said genocide, despite the fact that they know peace is possible. If they go through with this, the Geth are forced to defend themselves. And finally, if the Quarians are able to commit genocide, they all celebrate by throwing a fucking party celebrating the unjust destruction of an intelligent race. If the Geth win, they express sorrow that it has come to this.

Whereas your argument is: They're synthetic, so they don't matter.

Well, no, it isn't. The Geth are wonderful and deserve a chance to become more than they are now.

As I said before, the scenario where both live is FAR superior.

However, when push comes to shove, I choose to save Quarian lives over Geth hardware.

Yes, the Quarians did some pretty shitty things. While I would disagree that they "enslaved" anyone, as the Geth were initially no more than clever pieces of machinery, they did still wrongly attempt to destroy them and didn't even attempt peace and understanding.

However, they are still persecuted by the rest of the galaxy simply for being nomads. Everyone dislikes them simply because they have no home.

Finally, when it comes down to it, the only real decision is this: Kill millions of Quarians, all of whom are highly complex, fully intelligent life forms, most which should carry no blame for the shitty things of their ancestors.
OR
Destroy the Geth who, while intelligent and sympathetic, cannot compare to truly living things. They still feel little to no emotion and, other than Legion, have a lack of basic life qualities.

It's a wonderfully difficult situation with no good decision, but I have to go with the Quarians.

Besides, I always get annoyed when Bioware pulls manipulative nonsense like with the recordings you see when you go into the Geth data center. It just makes me want to go the opposite direction of where they're trying to push me.

 

[Oroboros]

The survival rate seems a bit skewed, considering some characters had a chance to be killed prior to ME3 as well as in ME3. Liara, EDI, Vega cannot be killed at all before ME3, while Tali, garrus, Ashley, and kaiden can all die before you even fire up the game. Just look at poor Wrex. I'm sure if it was a percentage for characters surviving over the entire series, there would be a lot of people who had rather low survival rates, with Morinth and Fishman being at the bottom, of course.

 

[soren7550]

- Did not cure the Genophage.
- Hated Wrex but I met him.
...
- I can't remember but I think I might have shot Mordin. He was all right but I just hated the Krogan so much I didn't want them saved. I might have let him go up and get killed himself. All I remember is there was no way I was letting the cure be released by me.
- Infiltrator, Paragon.

How could you *not* like Wrex? Or the krogan? And you kill a guy you like in order to condemn an entire race to extinction? And you call yourself a paragon.

 

[Zeraki]

Only 4% finished it on insanity? Huh, I feel a bit special now. Although Mass Effect 3's insanity was a walk in the park compared to the brutality of Mass Effect 2's(though by the time I got to the Collector base I was an unstoppable juggernaut of headbutting destruction).

The Wrex percentage doesn't really surprise me. Back when Mass Effect 2 was about to come out I remember something being said about how the majority of players didn't even know you could save Wrex on Virmire. Combine that with the fact that when you start a new non import game of Mass Effect 2 it defaults to him being dead(which I'm sure is the same for the third one)and you have your 64%. This is also probably affected by people who didn't download the comic for the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2.

Soldier class has always had a ridiculously high player base, even in the original Mass Effect. It's the easiest class to play that requires the least amount of thought. I was actually a soldier through and through until I finished Mass Effect 3 and started a new trilogy run with a Sentinel(which is now my favorite class).

I just realized Javik isn't even in the squad statistics... poor guy, first he gets cut out of the game to be sold separately and now this. "In my Cycle... " -sigh- "I am so alone."

 

[Imre Csete]

How the ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuck did nearly half these people play as soldier? It's so dull!

When I'm jumping into a new RPG I always pick the fighter-y class first. So that was my main since ME1. I got all the other classes lined up from ME2 to import, but I doubt I'll replay ME3 any time soon.

 

[Feylynn]

Paragon Adept Fem Shep
-No ME3 companion casualties.
(Jacob died in ME2 due to an unfortunate brief lapse in judgement considering how competent he was at jobs he asked for)
-Completed Insanity.
Though I don't remember how... I didn't have any trouble when I initially beat the game. Completely forgot how to play and just set it to story mode for extended cut.
(Strangely same thing happened with Deus Ex: HR... Clear Impossible effortlessly, forget entirely how to play)
-Earned Longservice.
-100% readiness.
-Met Wrex.
-DID NOT shoot Mordin.
-Cured Genophage.
-Saved both Quarian and Geth.
-Favortie Squad Members:
Liara>Tali>EDI.
(Garrus is 4th but I didn't use him at all)

 

[Tom_green_day]

Even though they're making another Mass Effect game?

Yeah- The new ME game isn't part of ME3 trilogy, it's part of a new trilogy.

 

[In Search of Username]

Poor Kaidan. I hate how unpopular he is, he's the best-written character in the series. :/

 

[Raikas]

...you can kill Vega?

The run to the beam with a low EMS, no?

Also, the reason why he's so "popular" is simple. If I'm guessing how they calculated who your most popular team member is correctly, then it's based on who you choose to be by your side through the majority of the missions.

Yeah, I'd love to know if that's how they worked it out - it hardly seems like a meaningful stat considering the people who are missing for the first chunk of the game.

Also, you can't shoot Mordin, if he's already dead and for many, he was a notoriously fragile member in the suicide mission.

Yup, hence the reference to shooting Padok instead - he's only there for the cure if Mordin died in ME2.

 

[votemarvel]

I'm not surprised that the Soldier class in the most popular, even though I mostly play as an Adept.

The changes to the combat in 2 and 3 greatly pushed the balance in favour of the Solder, there was never a situation which the soldier wasn't equipped for.

I always felt I was moving forward with the Soldier class, constantly pressing the enemy. Switching weapons and ammo powers* as the situation required.

When playing as the Adept through, I started to feel that things were too repetitive. All too often you'd be stuck behind a chest high wall spamming biotic combos to slowly chip away at the shields of an enemy.

* that was a bad idea in itself but again makes the Soldier that much better.

 

[I Max95]

27% of people saved the Quarians? That should probably read "27% of people weren't paying attention when it turned out that the Quarians were the bad guys in that conflict.".

oh, yeah, right, and i'm supposed to ignore the fact that the Geth allied themselves with the Reapers? you know, the ones who want to kill BILLIONS. the first time, it was just the heretics, this time, it was ALL Geth, apart from one.

was it stupid of the Quarians to start the war? yes, did the Geth have their reasons? sure, would I choose peace if I could? absolutely, but if I just didn't have the reputation nessesary, I choose Quarians every time

But don't forget the Geth were essentially brain dead with only basic survival instincts which made it easier for the reapers to take control of them, or are you suggesting humans are bad too since a huge fracton of them joined the reapers as well?

people still seem to think that the Geth are incapable of intelligent thought, but they are, the more of them are near each other the smarter they are, and the Reapers didn't "take control" the Geth relinquished control voluntarily, in order to get the Reaper upgrades and save themselves from the Quarians

also don't pretend indoctrination is the same thing, indoctrination is entirely involuntary, plus if we're talking about Cerberus, Cerberus is only a fraction of Humanity, the ENTIRE Geth race joined with the Reapers

 

[pandorum]

How did the people playing manshep stand it? His voice acting is soooooo bad next to femshep.

Also the 3.8 % of people who shot Mordin are dead inside.

And I think that the only reason that Vega is popular is because he has the most health out of all the team and he really helps on insanity. I hate the guy but he is a great bullet shield.

I play broshep all the time I don't like femsheps voice she sounds soooo dull like she is trying to be manly instead of a women plus I am male myself and can relate to men more than women maybe I'm not that in touch with my feminine side. Oh and anyone saying that you would rather look at a girls bum rather than a guys, 1: why are you looking at his bum when playing Mass? 2: it is over the shoulder cam not slapped on his ass.

 

[thetoddo]

27% of people saved the Quarians? That should probably read "27% of people weren't paying attention when it turned out that the Quarians were the bad guys in that conflict.".

oh, yeah, right, and i'm supposed to ignore the fact that the Geth allied themselves with the Reapers? you know, the ones who want to kill BILLIONS. the first time, it was just the heretics, this time, it was ALL Geth, apart from one.

was it stupid of the Quarians to start the war? yes, did the Geth have their reasons? sure, would I choose peace if I could? absolutely, but if I just didn't have the reputation nessesary, I choose Quarians every time

But don't forget the Geth were essentially brain dead with only basic survival instincts which made it easier for the reapers to take control of them, or are you suggesting humans are bad too since a huge fracton of them joined the reapers as well?

The Humans who joined the reapers were indoctrinated to a greater or lesser extent.

 

[pandorum]

How did the people playing manshep stand it? His voice acting is soooooo bad next to femshep.

The best way I've heard it put is that while Mark Meer can be pretty brick-like in his recitations, he improves throughout the series. Compare some of his ME1 lines with some ME3 lines and you'll see the difference. Jennifer Hale, on the other hand, stays at about the same level of quality throughout the series. She's better in ME1, about the same overall in ME2, and worse in ME3.

Then again, I've only played through the series once, with MShep, so grains of salt and such.

OT:

I feel like I'm the only person who actually likes Kaiden, and apparently I am indeed part of the 1.5 per cent. Take that, plebs!

Surprised that Tali was so low on the popularity list, since so many people like her oh wait you have to play for twenty hours to even get to her and Legion goddammit.

Right there with you buddy I like like Kaiden to, he wares his heart on his sleeve.

 

[I Max95]

27% of people saved the Quarians? That should probably read "27% of people weren't paying attention when it turned out that the Quarians were the bad guys in that conflict.".

oh, yeah, right, and i'm supposed to ignore the fact that the Geth allied themselves with the Reapers? you know, the ones who want to kill BILLIONS. the first time, it was just the heretics, this time, it was ALL Geth, apart from one.

was it stupid of the Quarians to start the war? yes, did the Geth have their reasons? sure, would I choose peace if I could? absolutely, but if I just didn't have the reputation nessesary, I choose Quarians every time

But don't forget the Geth were essentially brain dead with only basic survival instincts which made it easier for the reapers to take control of them, or are you suggesting humans are bad too since a huge fracton of them joined the reapers as well?

people still seem to think that the Geth are incapable of intelligent thought, but they are, the more of them are near each other the smarter they are, and the Reapers didn't "take control" the Geth relinquished control voluntarily, in order to get the Reaper upgrades and save themselves from the Quarians

also don't pretend indoctrination is the same thing, indoctrination is entirely involuntary, plus if we're talking about Cerberus, Cerberus is only a fraction of Humanity, the ENTIRE Geth race joined with the Reapers

But you forget the quarians started the attack when the entire galaxy was at stake,so if they had'nt attacked the geth then the reaper would'nt have had a chance to take control of them.I also think geth have their own form of indoctrination because all the reapers have to do is corrupt their run times and they can control the geth with ease.

the Quarians were idiots for starting the war, but at least they didn't join forces with the REAPERS, they made it clear that the Geth joined the Reapers by choice.

i'm done trying to explain beyond that, and i'm surprised more people aren't convinced by that alone, I will NEVER favor a synthetic species that joined forces with the enemy of ALL organics, over an organic species that maybe made a few idiotic mistakes

 

[floppylobster]

- Did not cure the Genophage.
- Hated Wrex but I met him.
...
- I can't remember but I think I might have shot Mordin. He was all right but I just hated the Krogan so much I didn't want them saved. I might have let him go up and get killed himself. All I remember is there was no way I was letting the cure be released by me.
- Infiltrator, Paragon.

How could you *not* like Wrex? Or the krogan? And you kill a guy you like in order to condemn an entire race to extinction? And you call yourself a paragon.

Well I didn't consider myself much of a paragon. But the game did. Wrex was very one-dimensional, no depth, no internal struggles, nothing much to him but his outward conflict with others, and no appreciation of anything beyond his own world. His character type had been done before with Klingons, Dothraki or any other 'warrior race' based on the Spartans. He ended up just reminding me of a sports jock. If it's any consolation I also hated the Quarians and strongly disliked the Asari. I did like the Volus.

 

[Raikas]

Ha! Take that Talimancers, she only lived 39% of the time! >

The survival rate in combat has to do with how durable their abilities are. Not how useful.

That survival rate can't be about durability in combat - Kaidan's at the bottom of the list and he's all but unkillable on the lower difficulities with that Barrier skill (and only a tiny handful play at Insanity), and we know that he's dead in close to 80% of imports, so that's the only way it makes sense.

And 39% makes sense for story deaths for Tali too. She was one of the few in ME2 (along with Mordin) who would regularly die on the SM even when loyal, and that's without mentioning how easy it is to have her kill herself in the actual game.