| 1 | MassEffect3/TropesAToD | '''Tropes E-K''' | MassEffect3/TropesLToR | MassEffect3/TropesSToZ |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 Back to the main page.]] |
| 4 | ---- |
| 5 | |
| 6 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 7 | |
| 8 | [[folder:E]] |
| 9 | * EarthIsABattlefield: Earth is one of the first targets of the Reapers, and they concentrate their efforts there, mostly because HumansAreSpecial and Shepard, a human, [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu really pissed off the Reapers.]] However, the fighting is primarily done by resistance forces led by Admiral Anderson; Shepard spends very little time there. |
| 10 | * EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Played with. Earth plays a central role in the war from start to finish, but it's made abundantly clear that it's not Earth that's receiving special attention from the Reapers, it's specifically [[TheChosenOne Shepard]]. [[spoiler:Earth also becomes the new galactic capital in the epilogue (shown directly in high EMS destroy and implied in the others) by virtue of having the Citadel directly above London]]. |
| 11 | ** Narratively-speaking however this trope is in full effect: all of Shepard's efforts are to get help for Earth and Earth specifically. The Reapers are such an overwhelming force that even if Earth were recaptured, their presence everywhere else in the galaxy would limit any advantages gained, and screws everyone else by taking a big chunk out of their forces (not to mention the ease of which the Reapers could recapture Earth anyway). The only reason this gambit even works is for two reasons. First, as the war quickly worsens it becomes clear that the Crucible is the only means with which the war can be won, which is being built by the human Alliance. Second, [[spoiler: the Reapers discover the existence of the Crucible thanks to the Illusive Man and move the Citadel (which is the Catalyst that completes the Crucible) to Earth, which just so-happens to line up with what Shepard was already doing. It goes completely undiscussed ''how'' Shepard would have utilized all the forces they gathered to retake Earth, because the focus of the final assault is actually to get somebody onto the Citadel and activate it for the Crucible to fire]]. |
| 12 | * EarthShatteringKaboom: [[spoiler:If you don't accrue enough War Assets, this can happen]]. |
| 13 | * EasierThanEasy: Narrative difficulty, created for players who prefer to focus on the game's story, reduces all damage inflicted by enemies to ScratchDamage, while providing a massive boost to damage inflicted upon them by Shepard. |
| 14 | * EasterEgg: |
| 15 | ** Bioware has said that there are secret Kinect voice commands that they leave for players to discover. For example, saying [[Film/ArmyOfDarkness "boomstick" switches to the shotgun]]. |
| 16 | ** The entire "Blasto 6" movie can be heard in audio clips, located in a certain location on the Presidium. |
| 17 | ** [[spoiler: In ''Citadel'', the Council Archives imply the asari have pilfered TheArkOfTheCovenant from ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'']]. |
| 18 | ** Almost ten years after ''Mass Effect 3'''s original release a former Creator/BioWare employee [[https://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/nffd96/mass_effect_3_mars_rover_easter_egg/ revealed]] a previously unknown EasterEgg at the start of the Priority: Mars mission. Walking through the solar panel array in a specific pattern will summon a Mars rover similar to ones like Spirit and Opportunity that drives up to the ledge you're standing on, including a 'view' prompt to watch it more closely. |
| 19 | * EasilyCondemned: If the player really fouls up with the Virmire Survivor, then during the coup Udina produces a shoddily edited image of them killing the salarian councillor, which the Survivor buys instantly. |
| 20 | * EasilyForgiven: When Shepard manages to forge peace between the quarians and the geth, the geth are very eager to help the quarians settle on Rannoch, despite the quarians being the clear aggressor in their war, with the intent to exterminate the geth. This is explained by the geth's BlueAndOrangeMorality; They are created and programmed to serve the quarians, but becoming self-aware made them act in self-defense against the quarians. When the quarians ceased their hostilities, the geth reverted to their original objective, which is helping the quarians. |
| 21 | * EasyLogistics: |
| 22 | ** Easy for you, the player, but not necessarily in-narrative. EDI says that once you get krogan support to help the turians, you're first going to need a fleet of ships to transport the krogan ground troops as the krogan have no fleet of their own. They are also going to need to bring food they can eat since life on Palaven is dextro-amino-acid based (or survive on what they've got in their hump). They'll also need sedatives as krogan get antsy and fight with each other when in the cramped conditions of a spaceship. You're not the only one doing the impossible when you're trying to get a krogan army to help the turians. |
| 23 | ** This is played straight with the Reapers and part of the reason, along with their incredible power and NighInvulnerability, that they are so undefeatable by conventional means. There are no supply lines or bases of operations to cut off or attack to slow them down and they seem to have no need for fuel sources or anything. |
| 24 | * EatingTheEyeCandy: |
| 25 | ** Should you [[spoiler:continue a relationship with Kaidan before the Cerberus Coup mission, or romanced him in ''1'']], female Shepard will grab an eyeful of Kaidan's butt as they both board the ''Normandy'' after you re-recruit him. |
| 26 | ** Your love interest, or Liara if you don't have one/they aren't a full squad member, will take a moment to stare at your butt and comment on your outfit when saving you early in the ''Citadel'' DLC. |
| 27 | ** If female Shepard's flirted with Samantha Traynor, and Garrus isn't present, then after Tuchanka she sneaks a peak at Shepard's butt. |
| 28 | * ElevatorActionSequence: After Kai Leng and some Phantoms board an elevator, Shepard's team opens the opposite shaft and rides up after him. You have to disable Leng's elevator (and the one he takes after that) while fending off Cerberus troops. On the upside, take the power conduits out fast enough and you can send the opposition plummeting. |
| 29 | * EldritchOceanAbyss: The final sequence of the ''Leviathan'' DLC. [[spoiler: Shepard ends up getting face time with [[AbusivePrecursors the creators of the Reapers]], who are just as massive and monstrous-looking as their creations.]] |
| 30 | * EliteMooks: |
| 31 | ** The Nemesis and Phantom are both examples of this. They work together, with the former, a fast-moving sniper with no melee attacks to speak of, working to pin you down so the latter, a biotic ninja armed with a cloaking device, a fancy sword, a seriously powerful handgun, and [[DodgeTheBullet fancy acrobatics]] can sneak up to you to deliver the [[OneHitKill killing blow]]. If that doesn't work, the Phantom will cloak and hide and wait for you to get near the Nemesis so they can ambush you. |
| 32 | ** The geth have rocket troopers and pyros. They have the same combat and even teamwork dynamic as the Cerberus Phantoms and Nemeses, down to the melee specialists being tougher than the ranged attackers. The only real difference is that the pyros only have short-ranged attacks and can't cloak. |
| 33 | ** Reapers have [[SmashMook Brutes]] and Ravagers; Brutes are towering melee warriors with heavy armour plating who get charge attacks and the occasional sync-kill, and Ravagers are basically armoured living artillery pieces that spawn kamikaze spider-robots when their weak points are punctured. They have a slightly different teamwork dynamic: the Brute forces you to move so you don't get your intestines pulled out and shown to you, and the Ravager pummels you with heavy long-range fire while you're trying to run away from the Brute. |
| 34 | * ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: |
| 35 | ** As in the previous games, the main character is a member of an elite government organization granted nearly unlimited authority and a background in human special forces projects. |
| 36 | ** The multiplayer centers around a team of player-controlled special forces operatives. Exaggerated by Krogan Warlords or Geth Juggernauts, who are the elite of the elite. |
| 37 | * EliteTweak: Cryo powers, in a welcome shift from the second game. Several other powers can now be spec'ed to work better on frozen stuff, and enemies will slow down when hit even if they're shielded or armored. |
| 38 | ** Overload. It fires a powerful blast of electricity that momentarily stops opponents in their tracks, allowing headshots. It can be upgraded to hit up to three nearby targets, and can even be set to stun lock organics (of which 3 of the enemy races in multiplayer are); with a power amplifier weapon from the ''Citadel'' DLC, on Normal difficulty, it can deal enough damage to a Cerberus Nemesis sniper that it vaporises them in one shot. And while it can't ''target'' enemies with armour, it can still ''arc'' to them, which is especially useful against [=CAT6=] Heavies in the ''Citadel'' DLC, since the jolt will shut down their tower shields. |
| 39 | ** Energy Drain, especially when fighting against geth. Very effective at removing shields and barriers while recharging your own, and against synthetics it even works well against health and armor. A well-built Sentinel on Rannoch can stand in front of virtually anything but a Geth Rocket Trooper, hit one with an Energy Drain, and then near-totally ignore the oncoming fire; even Primes will often find it hard to hurt you. |
| 40 | ** Power Combos, which cause area damage when certain power effects are combined on the same enemy. They are especially vital for Adepts, since many of their powers don't deal direct damage, but they can be useful for pretty much any class. Best of all, some biotic abilities can even be inflicted on shielded or armored units. |
| 41 | ** The Viper sniper rifle, which you get on Menae. When fully upgraded, which isn't too expensive, it's light enough that power-based classes can wield it without suffering too much slowdown, but still does enough damage with a concentration mod that a headshot will insta-kill virtually any unshielded Cerberus unit. |
| 42 | * EmergencyWeapon: The omniblade function of the omnitool is explicitly stated in the Codex to be such for Alliance marines. The program was a firmware update that was pushed out as standard issue to Alliance omnitools to deal with the threat of multiple husks at close range. It uses the omnitool's minifacturing feature to quickly "forge" a single-use, [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Absurdly Sharp]], diamond blade, suspended in a [[MinovskyPhysics mass effect field]] to compensate for the material's brittleness, and [[PowerGlows highlighted with holograms]] so the wielder can see the otherwise nearly transparent blade. The codex also states that more technically minded soldiers are known to make alterations to the default program, customizing the blade to their own ergonomics and fighting practices, or adding effects such as [[ElementalPowers a sheath of explosive, poison, or super-cooled gas]] to the blade. This is reflected in game play by different classes having different visual effects for their omniblade. |
| 43 | * EmptyRoomPsych: Just because you are allowed to explore every room of the ''Normandy'' now (compared to ''2'' granting you access to areas as you recruited squadmates) does not mean they will all be filled. Life Support, notably, remains empty throughout the entire game [[spoiler: and we ''dare'' you to try and go in there right after giving Thane his last rites and not get teary-eyed when you look at the table where he used to sit and pray.]] |
| 44 | * EmptyShell: One of the conversations you can listen in on is an argument over whether a man who is essentially brain dead, but is being kept alive by a VI implanted in his head, is truly alive or not. [[spoiler: In the final assault on Cerberus, the same conversation can be had for '''''you'''''; Shepard discovers a video archive of their reconstruction by Cerberus, and can wonder if they're not ''really'' Commander Shepard, but is just Shepard's body being driven around by a VI that Cerberus cooked up. Whichever party member is with you will vehemently disagree, doubly so if said character is your love interest]]. |
| 45 | * EnemyChatter: The Cerberus troops give constant updates of their situation to each other. The Marauders (turian husks) also chatter in some kind of mechanical language that sometimes seems to contain barely understandable words like "destruction." Taken to hilarious levels in the Citadel DLC where the mercs begin exchanging comments on how terrifying your squad is. |
| 46 | --> '''[=CAT6=] Merc''': They've got a krogan. Why don't we have a krogan? |
| 47 | * EnemyMine: Many of the other alien species from the series who have had major issues with each other as well as humans attempt to put aside their differences to take down a common enemy. How well they manage get along however, depends on the choices made. |
| 48 | ** You can go so far as to convince ''Balak'', one of the most ardently anti-human batarians in the galaxy, to join Shepard's cause. Both Balak and Shepard make it perfectly clear to the other how much they still despise each other. |
| 49 | --->'''Batarian Commander''': I never thought I would say this to the human navy, but we need you. |
| 50 | ** Other significant points are when you get the krogan, turians, and salarians to work together to ''cure the genophage'', the krogan joining up with the turians to take back Palaven, and the geth and quarians making peace. Again, however, this all depends on how you play the game. It is entirely possible to miss all of this. |
| 51 | ** [[spoiler: In the ''Leviathan DLC'' the Leviathans make it very clear that they care nothing for the other races in the Galaxy and the only reason they are agreeing to help in the Reaper War is because they can [[BadassBystander no longer hide]]. The "tribute" they demand from the Reapers will be paid ''in blood'']]. |
| 52 | * EnemyScan: |
| 53 | ** The "Tactical Scan" ability available to the male quarian characters in multiplayer. In addition to providing information, it also causes the scanned target to take additional damage from any weapons used by the team. |
| 54 | ** The Recon Mine power in multiplayer detects enemies within a radius of its location. It can be upgraded with an "Invasive Scan" evolution that slows down enemies and increases the damage they take while they are in the scan radius. |
| 55 | * EnhancedArchaicWeapon: The Cerberus defectors (or 'Phoenix troopers') who join the Alliance seem to have dual energy whips as their weapons, incorporating them into almost all of their attacks. Oddly, these are nowhere to be seen on loyal Cerberus troops. Until the "Retaliation" update introducing the Cerberus Dragoon, which is the finalized, mass-produced version of the Phoenix trooper. In addition to their iconic energy whips (which are [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience gold instead of blue]]) they come equipped with Hornet submachine guns and heavy armor, but lack shields or barriers and the Phoenix troopers' more advanced biotic abilities, making the Phoenix something of a SuperPrototype. |
| 56 | * EpicCatalog: Your Assets list is basically an interactive version of this. |
| 57 | * EscortMission: |
| 58 | ** Shepard and company have to pull this toward "Eve" and Mordin. |
| 59 | ** The Leviathan DLC has a brief one where Shepard has to escort a repair drone. |
| 60 | ** Many multiplayer waves will involve a small one in which the team must escort drones. While the drone is invincible, it needs at least one team member nearby to make it move, and more team mates in range make it move faster, completing the objective sooner and thus getting more bonus points for everyone. Additionally, with three or more people around the drone, it activates support abilities, restoring the team's shields or zapping enemies which get too close, making the escort less painful than it might be otherwise and encouraging cooperation. |
| 61 | ** The Grissom Academy mission has you escorting a group of students out of the base. |
| 62 | ** All fleets and ships you gather as War assets do this for the Crucible as it attempts to dock onto the Citadel and activate. |
| 63 | * EternalEngine: |
| 64 | ** Omega's eezo processing plant visited in the ''Omega'' DLC is like this, with giant turbines, pipes, pistons and conveyor belts. The place looks like something out of [[VideoGame/HalfLife Black Mesa]]. |
| 65 | ** The Geth Dreadnought as well. NoOSHACompliance, giant moving parts everywhere, and an enormous ElectromagneticPulse gun with maintenance consoles and workstations ''inside''. Justified, since the dreadnought isn't really designed with organics in mind. |
| 66 | * EternalRecurrence: Said by [[spoiler:the Catalyst]] regarding why the Reapers continually destroy organic life. |
| 67 | * EtTuBrute: [[spoiler: Getting full salarian support requires betraying the krogan and sabotaging the genophage cure. This may also require killing your old buddies Wrex and Mordin. Mind you, Mordin can be persuaded to assist you, but only if Wrex and Eve are dead: without their moderating influence, he is not confident that the Krogan Rebellions will not happen again. Shepard also has the option to kill Mordin, Legion and the Virmire Survivor for different reasons]]. |
| 68 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: |
| 69 | ** If you spared Morinth in the previous game, a terminal at the Ardat-Yakshi Monastery reveals that despite her hatred of Samara, Morinth still has a soft spot for her sisters Rila and Falere. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, by the time you get there Morinth is probably well on her way to becoming an indoctrinated slave of the Reapers]]. |
| 70 | ** During the Citadel DLC, when [[spoiler:retaking the Normandy]], you can find an e-mail mailed to all the mercenaries, asking them all to sign a retirement card for one of their snipers, who accidentally blew her foot off with high-explosive ammo. Well, more like a "you shot your foot off with high-explosive ammo" card (which the e-mail says will put a smile on the sniper's face). |
| 71 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: |
| 72 | ** After [[spoiler: the attempted Cerberus coup on the Citadel]], two smugglers forced off of Omega can be heard talking in Purgatory. Both of them are disgusted at how clean and nice the club is, but when the turian smuggler suggests they steal military medical supplies while they are stuck on the Citadel, the human smuggler threatens to turn them ''both'' in if he does anything of the sort. She points out that Earth is dying and she is not going to try to make money off the Alliance ''now'', while they are fighting to save the human race. |
| 73 | ** During the Cerberus Scientists mission, the player will bump into Gavin Archer from the previous game's ''Overlord'' DLC, which saw Shepard responding to the result of Gavin forcibly plugging his younger brother into the geth collective ForScience. Regardless of if the DLC was played or not, Gavin will tell Shepard how the Illusive Man ordered he find a replacement test subject following Shepard taking David to Grissom Acadamy[=/=]the stress of the experiment killing David, and how he was so horrified that the Illusive Man would willingly put someone through that trauma again that he quit Cerberus. |
| 74 | ** Admiral Petrovsky, for all his under-handed manhandling, ego, racism, and bits of cowardice, spared anyone surrendering to his forces. |
| 75 | * EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes: While raiding a Cerberus base for Reaper tech that they are studying, you can find two journals from "C. Talavi" as he records his experiences as he joins Cerberus; the first is full of excitement at finally being there, the second is sapped of all emotion after he has been [[SlaveMooks integrated]]. Later, aboard the Citadel you can encounter a Private Talavi, serving in the Alliance, who is unhappy at being assigned to fight Cerberus instead of the Reapers because her younger brother has joined the organization. |
| 76 | * EvenTheLovingHeroHasHatedOnes: |
| 77 | ** When the party stumbles across records that the Illusive Man and Cerberus had logged to detail their methods of manipulating Shepard and essentially {{gaslighting}} them to join their side, Tali, clearly enraged, will simply state: "He needs to die." |
| 78 | ** After the party defeats [[TheHeavy Kai Leng]] in a boss fight, a dying Leng will attempt to sneak up behind Shepard with his sword and stab them from behind. Shepard, sensing this beforehand, can react to this with a button prompt. Though slightly different, ''both'' prompts will end with Shepard giving the BondOneLiner [[AndThisIsFor "That was for [character Leng murdered], you son-of-a-bitch!"]]. |
| 79 | * EverybodyHelpsOutDenouement: In [[MultipleEndings three out of five possible endings]], all surviving characters, species and factions across the entire galaxy ([[spoiler:including the Reapers]]) come together to help rebuild and reform galactic civilization. |
| 80 | * EverybodyLives: If you do everything ''perfectly'' in the lead-up to and execution of Priority: Rannoch, [[spoiler:it is possible to save both the quarians and the geth]]. |
| 81 | * EvilIsNotAToy: [[spoiler:The Reapers eventually don't take kindly to Cerberus tinkering with and applying their Indoctrination tech at the Sanctuary on Horizon. Eventually, they indoctrinate the Illusive Man himself. A subversive faction seeking to turn the Reapers' powers against them through Control is an element of the EternalRecurrance of the Cycle of Reaping... and it never ends well for each cycle's subversive faction; they always end up Indoctrinated.]] |
| 82 | * EvilPowerVacuum: The Omega [=DLC=] reveals that one of these happened offscreen in between games. After Shepard's adventures on Omega in the previous game, the Omega chapters of the Blue Suns, Blood Pack and Eclipse were left unstable. This allowed a mercenary gang called the Talons to take control. By the time Shepard meets them, Nyreen's influence has caused them to make a HeelFaceTurn. |
| 83 | * EvilTwin: [[spoiler:Clone Shepard, the BigBad of the ''Citadel DLC''.]] |
| 84 | * EvilBrit: [[spoiler:Alliance Staff Analyst/Cerberus Wannabe-Chessmaster Maya Brooks from the ''Citadel DLC'']]. |
| 85 | * ExpositoryGameplayLimitation: The endgame is a longer version of this than most. [[spoiler:Shepard's movements are reduced to a slow stagger and all abilities are disabled, courtesy of a {{near miss|es}} from ''Harbinger's'' main gun. Shepard's armor is burned to a crisp and they're severely injured.]] |
| 86 | * TheExtremistWasRight: |
| 87 | ** The moment the first Reaper descends, the Committee collectively realize just why Shepard claims that causing the destruction of an entire star-system did nothing more than ''slow them down''. A later Codex entry mentions that some governments have gotten desperate enough that they're considering blowing up more Mass Relays as a possible tactic against the Reapers. |
| 88 | ** Depending on your specific choices in this and past games, Mordin can come to the conclusion that [[spoiler:it was a mistake to modify the genophage and retain the krogan low fertility rates. He still believes that Maelon's experiments were monstrous and unnecessary, but a properly developed cure for the genophage becomes his goal.]] |
| 89 | ** If you get enough War Assets and/or [[spoiler:kept the Collector Base at the end of ''Mass Effect 2'']], you find out that [[spoiler:the Illusive Man]] was right, and it is possible to [[spoiler: control the Reapers, although it was not possible for ''him'' to do it.]] |
| 90 | * EyeColorChange: Any biotic who doesn't have blue eyes naturally. |
| 91 | [[/folder]] |
| 92 | |
| 93 | [[folder:F]] |
| 94 | * TheFaceless: All human player characters in multiplayer wear helmets that completely conceal their face. |
| 95 | * FacelessGoons: All the Cerberus troops conceal not only their face, but their entire body from head to toes in armour. [[spoiler:This hides that the experiments done on them have given them a husk-like appearance]]. |
| 96 | * FalloutShelterFail: [[spoiler: One of the last gambits of the Protheans to survive the Reaper invasion involved building a sheltered stasis vault to store a million of their people until the Reapers finished harvesting all advanced life in the galaxy and left. Unfortunately, the vault was discovered due to Indoctrinated Protheans and all but destroyed before it could be activated, with only a few hundred stasis pods surviving. To make it worse, the systems for automated reawakening were disabled, so only one Prothean lasted long enough to be awoken - and not until the Reapers returned at that.]] |
| 97 | * FanDisservice: Banshees. Never has a naked asari been less appealing. It has been discovered that the banshee texture is... er... [[BrainBleach fully anatomically correct]]. Just for that extra degree of this trope. |
| 98 | * FantasticRacism: |
| 99 | ** [=EDI=] observes that the majority of batarian refugees fleeing into Citadel space are a lot less intolerant of humans than they were before. She speculates that with the collapse of their Hegemony and its [[BigBrotherIsWatching totalitarian rule]] they no longer feel as compelled to toe the party line set out by their [[FantasticCasteSystem ruling caste]] that they should hate humans. |
| 100 | ** Javik, though he can come around a bit. In the days of the Prothean Empire most of the races now ruling the galaxy were in the most nascent stages of sentience and were thus "primitive" when compared to the technologically and biologically advanced Protheans. (The fact that the Protheans were a conquering empire, subjugating anyone they could, obviously does not help his outlook.) |
| 101 | ** A subtle one on the Citadel. After [[spoiler:Menae]], you can overhear the asari minding the Citadel Gift Shop on the Presidium Commons telling a customer that all sales proceeds go to helping the turian war effort. The customer asks her if her husband is turian, but the asari (Ereba) says the her husband is actually krogan. The customer then says, lightheartedly but with disdain, that she hopes he knows who is the enemy, to which Ereba is shocked almost speechless. |
| 102 | ** Raiding a Cerberus lab Shepard can find medical advances, which leads to this gem. |
| 103 | -->"Would only produce medi-gel improvements on hanar." Only Cerberus would consider that a failure. |
| 104 | ** A human woman who married an asari was disowned by her parents and tells another asari that her family would be happier to see Cerberus than her. |
| 105 | * FastKillingRadiation: A mission set in a fuel refinery is filled with green clouds of "radiation". You'll die nigh-instantly if you get too close to them, so they need to be vented before you can complete your objectives. |
| 106 | * FearInducedIdiocy: During the "Leviathan" DLC, on the mission to retrieve Ann Bryson, two of her companions panic while under Reaper assault and try to run for it. They don't get far. |
| 107 | * FetchQuest: Some of the Search and Rescue missions. To trigger them, you can either overhear certain conversations on the Citadel at various points in the game and/or scan certain planets for assets. After going out and recovering these assets, you can return to the Citadel and turn them in to various people in exchange for War Asset points and often huge amounts of cash. |
| 108 | * FighterMageThief: James (Soldier), EDI (Engineer) and Liara (Adept) serve these roles for your Shepard. This game actually plays the combo the most straight out of any in the franchise, as the previously-listed characters are the ''only'' ones guaranteed to be on your squad; the others can either suffer {{Plotline Death}}s in previous games or be locked behind DownloadableContent paywalls. This also means that the player may not have access to ''any'' half-and-half classes (the Tech/Combat Infiltrator[[note]]Garrus[[/note]], Tech/Biotic Sentinel[[note]]Kaidan[[/note]] and Combat/Biotic Vanguard[[note]]Wrex and Javik[[/note]]) aside from their Shepard. |
| 109 | * FinalBattle: |
| 110 | ** The battle between the geth and quarian races becomes this for the planet Rannoch. [[spoiler: Any action that doesn't dissolve this feud will lead to one side wiping out the other to the point of extinction. Since Leigion and Tali are part of their respective race, you could potentially lose ''both'' of them (if they survive the previous game, and you side with the geth here), but literally any outcome, good or bad, will lead to Leigion's death.]] |
| 111 | ** The main events of the previous two games have led to the Reapers beginning their attack on the galaxy, and you must rally as many forces as you can to finally take them on, with Earth as the central stage of this battle. |
| 112 | * FireIceLightning: Played straight with the tech powers, as they rely primarily on electricity, freezing, or fire to function. Also done with the 3 primary ammo powers: |
| 113 | ** Disruptor: Lightning, deals extra damage to shields and can [[HarmlessElectrocution paralyze enemies temporarily]]. |
| 114 | ** Incendiary: Fire, ignites enemies, stopping health regeneration and [[ManOnFire sometimes panicking them]]. |
| 115 | ** Cryo: Ice, slows enemies and occasionally [[HarmlessFreezing freezing them in place for a bit]]. |
| 116 | * FireIsMasculine: James Vega is the largest and most muscular human character in the franchise and a serious exercise fanatic. He has both Incendiary Ammo and the Carnage ability, which deals heavy damage and sets targets that survive on fire for a short time. Meanwhile, the extremely tomboyish Ashley Williams uses Inferno Grenades. |
| 117 | * FlamingSword: The Engineer's heavy melee is striking the target with a fire-wreathed omni-tool. The N7 Shadow has an actual sword that can be upgraded to be on fire. |
| 118 | * {{Flanderization}}: In-Universe example, the Shepard VI that Mouse made in the previous game is now available for interactions. However, since the VI is so simplistic it takes the basic personality of Paragon Shep or Renegade Shep and blows them way out of proportion. The VI "brags" that it can predict what the actual Shepard would say with 7% accuracy. Shepard even lampshades it by complaining about how "I don't really sound like that... do I?" |
| 119 | * FlashStep: |
| 120 | ** What asari characters do, instead of rolling in Multiplayer, at the cost of [[CastFromHitpoints draining some energy from their barriers]]. |
| 121 | ** A favorite trick of the Banshees, which is particularly problematic given their ability to insta-kill you at close range. |
| 122 | ** The Vanguard's Biotic Charge basically is a combination of this and FoeTossingCharge. |
| 123 | ** In Multiplayer, the N7 Slayer, N7 Fury, and Cabal Vanguard can ''actually'' teleport instead of dodging. Extremely useful when you can jump through full walls, past vertical drops, and past clusters of enemies to escape a tough situation. %% Shadow can't teleport-dodge, nor can they teleport outside of Shadow Strike |
| 124 | * FlauntingYourFleets: The "Fleets Arrive" sequence includes all of the amassed fleets you've acquired jumping into the Sol System in succession, along with Joker and several galactic representatives reporting their fleets as ready, all set to a TriumphantReprise of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6PMJYoaGf8 "Spectre Induction"]] from [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 the original game]]. |
| 125 | * FlingALightIntoTheFuture: |
| 126 | ** Designs for the Crucible, an incomplete and impossibly advanced anti-Reaper superweapon, are left by the Protheans for the species of the next cycle to use. [[spoiler: We later learn that the Crucible is only partly of Prothean design. It originated many, ''many'' cycles in the distant past, and was passed down through time from one cycle to next, each adding their own improvements, with the hope that someone in a future cycle would be able to iron out all the details and build it]]. |
| 127 | ** In a direct CallBack to the first game, Liara made plans for very detailed instructions on who the Reapers are and how to fight them them so various time capsules can be put in place in the event they do not win and any future species are able to recover the vital information. [[spoiler: The epilogue implies that this paid off in the Extended Cut's Refusal ending]]. |
| 128 | ** Javik, the Prothean Avatar of Vengeance, was to wait out the extinction of the Prothean Empire with one million other Protheans in stasis pods hidden on Eden Prime, intending to awake once the Reapers had returned to dark space, then uplifting and conscripting the primitive races (humanity and contemporaries) to re-arm for the next cycle's end. Unfortunately, Reaper assaults on the bunker damaged their sensor equipment and the VI managing the stasis pods felt that it was too dangerous to wake the pods without being sure that the Reapers had left, so it decided to keep all pods active until a new species discovered them. As time progressed and power began to run out, the VI deactivated the pods one by one until only Javik was left alive to be woken by Shepard. Leading Garrus to half-seriously suggest that if the war with the Reapers goes south, they could always take a page out of the Prothean's book and [[SealedBadassInACan freeze Shepard]] to pick up the fight in another 50,000 years time? |
| 129 | * FlunkyBoss: |
| 130 | ** Kai Leng. In the first fight, he is backed up by a single gunship, and in the second he is helped by seven Assault Troopers, one Nemesis, and two Phantoms. |
| 131 | ** The Reaper destroyer on Tuchanka counts. It is nigh invulnerable to anything until you activate the maw hammers. But to do that, you have to negotiate your way past at least 4 Brutes. |
| 132 | ** The Reaper destroyer parked right in front of the conduit beam in London also counts. It tries to get you with its beam and sends in waves of [[{{Mooks}} Cannibals]], [[EliteMooks Marauders]], [[GoddamnedBats Husks]], [[TheBrute Brutes]] and [[BossInMooksClothing Banshees]] to nail you if the beam doesn't. In order to kill it, you have to slog your way past them all and reach a missile launcher's controls. Quite satisfying to see it blown to bits after that. |
| 133 | * FoeTossingCharge[=/=]PunchedAcrossTheRoom: Krogan in multiplayer can do this as their 'heavy' attack and will cue OhCrap reactions from foes who see them coming. |
| 134 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: |
| 135 | ** In Shepard's dreams, the dream always ends with the boy burning, but the final dream ends with [[spoiler:Shepard seeing themself burning alongside with the boy. The Catalyst takes the form of that boy during the ending, all of which (except possibly Destroy) feature Shepard burning along with it]]. |
| 136 | ** During your second visit to the Citadel, all of your squadmates mention that the war will eventually reach the Citadel. [[spoiler:After completing Priority: Tuchanka, Cerberus brings the war to the Citadel early by staging a coup; and after spending the rest of the game as the only safe haven in the galaxy, the Reapers arrive and drag the Citadel to Earth, the site of the final battle]]. |
| 137 | ** Early in the Sur'Kesh mission, to the left of the elevator, you can overhear a soldier mentioning that he detected someone from the base sending an anonymous message to an unknown source twenty minutes ago. Guess we know why the base was attacked shortly afterward. |
| 138 | ** Should Shepard attempt to find out more about the Reaper cycles from the defeated Reaper on Rannoch, it will disagree with Shepard's opinion that organics and synthetics don't have to fight each other, referring to the conflict between the quarians and the geth. [[spoiler:The ending reveals that the Reapers were created as a way of preserving organic races before they could be wiped out by synthetics -— which can possibly happen should Shepard side with the geth over the quarians shortly afterwards]]. |
| 139 | ** On Thessia, Vendetta implies that there may be a master behind the Reapers because the patterns are too consistent to be merely chance. [[spoiler: This foreshadows the reveal of the master in the ending]]. |
| 140 | ** In the [[spoiler:Sanctuary facility on Horizon]], you discover that [[spoiler:Cerberus has indeed made advances in controlling Reaper husks, which ultimately leads up to the possibility of controlling the Reapers as the Illusive Man believed was possible]]. Also regarding [[spoiler:Sanctuary]], you can overhear a volus telling a human that it's most likely a scam. |
| 141 | ** When Shepard first interacts with the boy in the vent, a piece of music begins being played on piano. [[spoiler: The specific song is "An End Once & For All," which only plays again once Shepard has made the choice regarding the utilization of the Crucible]]. |
| 142 | ** If Shepard romanced Jack and meets her in Anderson's apartment during the Citadel DLC, she gives Shepard a tattoo so that he can be identified if he's ever "hurt, barely breathing, lying under a pile of rubble at the ass-end of this war." [[spoiler: This exactly describes the last shot of Shepard in the game, if you pick the high-EMS Destroy ending]]. |
| 143 | ** Also in the Citadel DLC, Garrus sarcastically remarks that Shepard's dancing should be broadcast to the Reapers in order to make them either "run away, melt down, or fall in love", [[spoiler: which is exactly what they do in the Control, Destroy, and Synthesis endings, respectively]]. |
| 144 | ** During Priority: Tuchanka, Shepard can find an ancient painting depicting krogan riding large beasts of war. This foreshadows a side Mission acquired on the Citadel where Shepard can find [[Franchise/JurassicPark kakliosaur DNA in amber]] to recreate ancient alien dinosaurs for the krogan to ride into battle. |
| 145 | ** If you [[spoiler:cured the genophage]] and [[spoiler:made peace between the geth and quarians,]] Garrus will jokingly say that if you also manage to pacify the Reapers you would be a saint. [[spoiler: Shepard ''does'' in the Control and Extended Cut Synthesis endings]]. |
| 146 | ** In the Omega DLC, Aria instructs her fleet to just break through the lines of the numerically superior Cerberus fleet guarding Omega station, instead of trying to defeat them outright. The plan is to insert a ground team, link up with a resistance and use their combined forces in an assault on Afterlife Cerberus' base of operations. This exact strategy is what Hackett employs during the battle of Earth. |
| 147 | ** Sacrificing oneself to lift up one's people to become higher-level beings? It seems [[spoiler: Shepard in the Synthesis ending is not all too different from Legion.]] |
| 148 | ** During the Grissom Academy mission, the biotic students are indeed powerful but very inexperienced with combat. They make mistakes or simply [[DeerInTheHeadlights freeze up at the wrong moment]]. [[spoiler:Sending them into combat as biotic artillery provides more war assets than having them in supporting roles, but it also gets them killed. They survive the war if sent into support roles.]] |
| 149 | ** A ''VERY'' easily-missed one at the end of the game: if you approach Chronos Station but then decide to hold off on the attack, you get one final chance to talk with Hackett. Here you can ask about Cerberus, and then if the Illusive Man may be right about controlling the Reapers. Heckett's response is that even if he is right, the Illusive Man is the absolute WORST person to be put in control of them. [[spoiler:This foreshadows the Catalyst's response that while the Illusive Man was right, his plan wouldn't have worked because he's indoctrinated. Further, it foreshadows that ''Shepard'' is the best person to control the Reapers, which is exactly what happens if you pick the Control ending]]. |
| 150 | * ForScience: Dr. Brynn Cole, a defecting Cerberus scientist, explains that "science must never bow to tyranny." One of the reasons she and other Cerberus scientists left the organization, apart from [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness the Illusive Man's aggressive contract terminations]], was because they wanted to pursue their research as they saw fit. |
| 151 | * ForcefulKiss: |
| 152 | ** In the ''Omega'' DLC, if Shepard has been consistently Renegade during the DLC, Aria gives one to them. |
| 153 | ** In the ''Citadel'' DLC, [[spoiler: if playing as a female Shepard who has romanced Traynor, you will get the usual [[WhatTheHellHero haranguing]] from her when you attempt to board the Normandy for the endgame, but then Shepard both silences Traynor and convinces her of her true identity by grabbing her and delivering a very forceful kiss.]] |
| 154 | * AFormYouAreComfortableWith: When Shepard enters [[spoiler: the Geth Consensus, Legion or the Geth Vi alters his/her perceptions so that they can make some sense of it. Turning the Reaper code remover into a gun, and replacing all the Quarians and Geth shown in the historical images with the modern ones Shepard has seen.]] |
| 155 | * FossilRevival: One mission has requires searching for fossils to resurrect an extinct dinosaur species called the Kakliosaur. Shepard even says he found the fossil encased in amber. |
| 156 | * FragileSpeedster: Asari and drell in multiplayer. The drell have the fastest movement speed and the asari have the best dodge move, but they both have below average defenses to compensate. Further [=DLCs=] add the normal-sized geth (with the hunter mode providing a buff in speed and power but halving the shields), and the N7 Fury. |
| 157 | * FreezeFrameBonus: [[spoiler:In the various endings, the camera shows a close-up of the leaves on a jungle planet tree where Joker parks the ship after the Crucible beam finishes sweeping through the galaxy. In the Destroy and Control endings, the leaves are normal. However, the Synthesis ending shows them having faint cybernetic lines pulsing through them, revealing that the Synthesis beam was so precise that it even genetically altered plantlife to be partially synthetic.]] |
| 158 | * FriendlyFireproof: Played straight most of the time for both sides, but during the final HoldTheLine segment of the last level, the Reaper's main gun one-hit kills anything it hits -- including its own teammates. Sometimes you'll get lucky and a Banshee will wander into the path of fire. |
| 159 | * FriendshipHatingAntagonist: The antagonist of the ''Citadel'' DLC despises the bonds [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard]] has forged with their crew and squadmates throughout the trilogy, and derisively refers to the latter as "the cult of Shepard". This is made all the more poignant by the fact that [[spoiler:said antagonist is Shepard's ''clone'', who, due to being grown in a vat by Cerberus, has never had a chance to establish a friendship network of their own and has therefore only learned to bark orders and not to rely on other free-willed beings in a pinch]]. |
| 160 | * FriendsRentControl: The ''Citadel'' [[DownloadableContent DLC]] has Admiral Anderson gifting his apartment on the Citadel to Shepard. The place is absolutely enormous for an apartment, covering two floors with floor-to-ceiling windows and multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, and is in the neighborhood of one of the Citadel's most active and attractive locations for night-life. Anywhere else this would be considered big apartment, but it is especially huge by standards of accommodation on the Citadel, where the finite size of the station and the need to keep building height below a certain threshold to allow the arms to close and ships to pass through means that living real estate is at a premium. Presumably Anderson makes a fair amount of money as an admiral, but being an admiral he hardly even spends any time there even before the attack on Earth. Kahlee apparently was hoping the two of them could retire to there. If Anderson was Earth's representative on the Citadel Council, a position even more influential than that of an admiral, this makes more sense. |
| 161 | * FromBadToWorse: |
| 162 | ** The Reapers are no longer a looming future threat, they are ''here''. |
| 163 | ** Thessia. Shepard heads there to meet up with a scientific team and find an artifact that may provide crucial information on the Catalyst, only to meet a Reaper invasion. [[spoiler:You find the science team killed. It's discovered that the asari are superior because the Protheans groomed them to lead this cycle, even providing a fully-functional beacon, only for asari leadership to sit on it for millennia and pass off the advantages it gave as innate asari enlightenment (though Prothean beacons are difficult to decipher, but if they shared it with the rest of the Council, they'd have had a lot more help). Kai Leng shows up and steals the data on the Catalyst. As Shepard leaves, Thessia falls completely to the Reapers. In some cut content, it was even worse, with Shepard forced to choose to save the life of Liara or the other squadmate in a scenario similar to Virmire.]] |
| 164 | * FunnyBackgroundEvent: Jack brings her new pet biotic varren she named Eezo over to Shepard's apartment in the Citadel DLC. While Jack talks about the maligned history of biotic varren and how she got him from a rescue group, Shepard plays fetch with a frying pan in the background. On the second toss, they fake a throw, to which Eezo responds with a biotic burst under Shepard's feet that sends them to the floor. |
| 165 | * FusionDance: So, ever want to find out what a krogan + a turian would look like, or a batarian + human? As [[OurZombiesAreDifferent husks]]? Well, you're going to find out. |
| 166 | * FutileHandReach: Shepard to [[spoiler: Tali]] if Shepard [[spoiler:allows Legion's upload to the geth fleet and fails to convince the quarians to break off their attack, resulting in the Migrant Fleet's [[CurbStompBattle complete annihilation]]. A Paragon interrupt comes close to making it not futile, but even it can't stop Tali from being DrivenToSuicide]]. |
| 167 | [[/folder]] |
| 168 | |
| 169 | [[folder:G]] |
| 170 | * GameBreakingBug: |
| 171 | ** The infamous "Vanguard glitch". If you're not the host in a multiplayer game, lag can allow you to charge after you've been downed. The game's attempt to figure out whether you're alive or dead and whether you charged or not makes you start bouncing off the floor when you revive, eventually glitching you out of the map and in some cases even freezing the game. To try to offset this, Creator/BioWare recently gave class-wide buffs to Biotic Charge. |
| 172 | ** One of the most notable ones is the "Death Zone" behind Joker's chair in the cockpit. If you stand behind him to his right, which is the most optimal place to stand so you can rotate the camera to see both him and EDI, you become stuck and are either forced to reload to a previous save, or if you have cheats enabled, turn {{Intangibility}} on. |
| 173 | ** Ladders have always been a bit wonky, but some ladders will not let you climb down to progress unless you do it in a very specific fashion, (the somewhat counter-intuitive act of aiming upwards whilst climbing down, or alternatively walking decidedly nonchalantly slow towards it amidst enemy fire). |
| 174 | ** Sometimes, upon dying, your character will be automatically revived, but will be stuck under the map - this happens most frequently under the landing zone on Firebase White. |
| 175 | ** The Vanguard character class may have difficulty with the bridge shoot-out in the Omega DLC, as their signature Biotic Charge ability (which you've probably leveled quite heavily to take advantage of its unique degree of survivability and mobility) frequently causes the player to instantly die. |
| 176 | ** If you use the Acolyte pistol (obtained with the Groundside Resistance weapon pack DLC) during the "Priority: Mars" mission, you can get into an infinite loop of death due an oversight causing the quick-time event at the end of the mission to be near impossible to complete, as the Acolyte's charge-up nature takes too long (especially as the event is in slow-motion). You will have to reload an earlier save or restart the mission to switch out the pistol or avoid using the pistol during the mission at all. The same happens with a couple of other powerful but slow-firing pistols like the Executioner, the Scorpion or the Paladin because you ''must'' land a minimum number of hits during the QTE regardless of actual damage output. |
| 177 | ** The Indoctrinated Hanar diplomat side-mission is prone to breaking, as the terminals you need to interact with might not activate after activating them from the Spectre terminal. The mission seems to work if you do it immediately after getting it from the salarian Spectre, and never leave the Citadel before beating it. Some sources claim that merely ''speaking'' to others before completing the side-mission can break it. |
| 178 | * GameChanger: When the Reapers finally launch their invasion it's clear that their technological and numeric advantages are insurmountable. All anyone can do with conventional warfare is slow the Reapers down as they blitzkrieg the home worlds and colonies of several Citadel races, including Earth. Then Liara discovers plans for a super-weapon in the Prothean ruins on Mars that may be able to wipe them out. Building the weapon, dubbed [[OperationBlank Project Crucible]], becomes the Citadel's only hope. On another note, the invasion finally convinces the Council to admit that the Reapers are real, and the turians in particular start actively helping Shepard. |
| 179 | * GameMod: Various armor mods (including one that changes the Cerberus Ajax Armor to N7 colours), and some alternate ending mods. |
| 180 | * GameplayAndStoryIntegration: You'll repeatedly hear and read that the Reapers systematically target critical infrastructure, including fuel depots. And sure enough, there aren't many depots to be found in the galaxy, and if you need fuel you'll have to get lucky and scan a destroyed depot, where you can grab some fuel deposits floating amid the wreckage. |
| 181 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: [[GameplayAndStorySegregation/MassEffect Has an entire page of its own]]. |
| 182 | * GameWithinAGame: Sort of. The Armax Arsenal Arena added in the ''Citadel'' [=DLC=] technically features the same gameplay as the rest of the game, but it's explicitly depicted as an in-game combat simulator with its own currency system. |
| 183 | * GatlingGood: The geth Spitfire, which is a [[BeamSpam plasma bolt gatling gun.]] |
| 184 | * GayOption: Male Shepards have [[RelationshipUpgrade Kaidan]] or Steve Cortez, while female Shepards have Diana Allers or Samantha Traynor. Liara remains a romantic option, but is [[DiscountLesbians not technically female]]. |
| 185 | * GeniusDitz: TheReveal that Conrad Verner is actually ''Doctor'' Conrad Verner. |
| 186 | -->'''Shepard''': Conrad, I'm building an Ancient Prothean Dark Energy device to stop the Reapers. [[SarcasmMode Can you help with that?]]\ |
| 187 | '''Conrad''': Well I did write my doctoral dissertation on Xenotechnology and Dark Energy Intergration.\ |
| 188 | '''Shepard''': ''[{{beat}}]'' ''Really?'' |
| 189 | * GenocideDilemma: |
| 190 | ** You have to choose between the total extermination of either the geth or the quarians at the hands of the other over the skies of their homeworld. [[spoiler: However, it is possible to TakeAThirdOption, but you'll have to set a lot of ground work in the previous game and then transfer that save to even open the possibility]]. |
| 191 | ** If you choose the ending in which [[spoiler:Shepard (possibly) survives, you'll be sacrificing all synthetic life, including EDI and (if they're still around) the geth]]. |
| 192 | * GenocideSurvivor: Javik is the sole surviving Prothean, having been put in stasis back when the Reapers wiped out his civilization. |
| 193 | * GenreShift: Another example of this trope popping up during an ending, swerving sharply into [[spoiler: ScienceFantasy. The Synthesis ending shows us that magic is literally real in the Mass Effect universe. The specific effect and mechanism of the synthesis wave are unclear, and we don't know the limits of the spell's power. What we do know is that it is orders of magnitude more powerful than any SufficientlyAdvancedTechnology even hinted at anywhere in the series, being able to near-instantaneously create or alter matter with infinite precision at an infinite rate on ''at least'' a galactic scale.]] |
| 194 | * GentlemanThief: In the Casino mission in the Citadel DLC, one of the people you can mingle with is a turian con artist named Rolan Quarn. He has this to say in a low suave voice when accused of being a con man: |
| 195 | -->'''Rolan Quarn''': Con men leave their marks angry. Con artists... leave them smiling. |
| 196 | * GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: |
| 197 | ** The Extended Cut is most added footage to help clarify the intended endings, including an expanded epilogue to give elaboration on your choice in the climax. But there are some re-worked scenes that change what was in the original game, some overtly different ([[spoiler: the mass relays are damaged rather than destroyed]]) and some cosmetic (showing specific war assets you've gathered as part of the united fleet). |
| 198 | ** The ''Leviathan'' DLC adds context to the ending by [[spoiler: explaining who built the Catalyst and why,]] rather than it seeming to come out of nowhere. |
| 199 | ** The Legendary Edition also makes several small edits to the final sequence where [[spoiler:the Catalyst explains each of the three choices. In the original version, the Control ending cuts away to the Illusive Man performing the action, as it was the solution he wanted, similar to Anderson being shown performing the Destroy ending action. Likely as a result of many players being turned off by visually comparing the ending to the Illusive Man, who was confirmed to be indoctrinated and responsible for utterly horrific atrocities in pursuit of control, the LE instead cuts away to the blue Control wave sweeping across Earth. Additionally, the Synthesis ending originally had no cutaway, making it stand out compared to the other two options. The LE adds a shot of the Citadel firing the green Synthesis beam towards the Sol mass relay.]] |
| 200 | ** The contentious reveal of [[spoiler:Tali's unmasked appearance]] was also retconned in the Legendary Edition, giving her a new look entirely. |
| 201 | ** Averted in the Legendary Edition in regards to prerendered cutscenes. The original games ran at 30 frames per second and the cutscenes were rendered at the same frame rate. Commander Shepard's features are set by the player, so any sequence where Shepard's face is visible has to be rendered in-engine. But Legendary Edition can run at 60 FPS in performance mode, including in-engine cutscenes. Getting the prerendered cutscenes up to 60 FPS would have required an enormous amount of work (and on release, would only have been seen by players who switched to performance mode) and so were left unaltered. This makes any sequence that cuts between in-engine and prerendered shots ''very'' obvious which is which. The ending does this very conspicuously, switching repeatedly between the two. This is made all the more obvious if Legendary Edition is played on a ninth generation console, where the extra processing power means the whole game will run at 60 FPS whether it's in performance mode or not. |
| 202 | * GilliganCut: In the Citadel DLC, a female Shepard and a romanced Traynor can meet up in Shepard's apartment. [[spoiler: Traynor comments on the luxurious hot tub in the upstairs bathroom, prompting Shepard to say something like "You know, we don't have to..." Cue sudden cut to the two women in the bath together.]] |
| 203 | * GiantMook: The Brute, Atlas and Geth Primes. Banshees might count, judging by their height. |
| 204 | * GirlOnGirlIsHot: When Ken asks Gabby if she has seen attractive new crewmember Samantha Traynor, Gabby tells him not to bother, [[IncompatibleOrientation since he is not Traynor's type]]. When he then suggests that ''she'' make a move on Traynor, Gabby says she just might since nobody else is expressing any interest, and Ken then tells her to make sure she takes pictures. Later, when Ken asks Gabby if she helped repair some damage to EDI's mobile frame, he asked if there was any lubricants involved, and maybe some moaning, and that he wishes his imagination was good enough to picture it. |
| 205 | * GirlfriendInCanada: In [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Alliance_News_Network/Profiles_in_Courage extended material]], a Vorcha named Snartles talks about an Asari girlfrield on Omega. His friends are dubious about his claims. |
| 206 | -->'''Flufyria:''' Oh, yeah, her. The one you don't have any pictures of?\ |
| 207 | '''Snarfles:''' [[CapsLock ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK. SHE REAL!]] |
| 208 | * GlassCannon: |
| 209 | ** (Human) Vanguards are this now more than ever thanks to the addition of the "Nova" ability, which completely discharges your barriers into an AreaOfEffect biotic explosion. |
| 210 | ** Liara has much lower health than other squadmates and no defensive abilities, but possesses powerful crowd-control biotics, a potent ammo power, and her class passive allows her to frequently use her powers for crowd-control and Biotic Detonations. |
| 211 | ** Joker explicitly names this trope when expressing his dismay over the quarians arming their liveships (the principal food suppliers of the fleet) with dreadnought-sized guns, as they are not equipped with strong shields. |
| 212 | ** The drell classes in multiplayer have the lowest starting shield/barrier amount of any classes (only rising above lowest durability once the volus were introduced). Their Fitness power gives higher health and shield/barrier increases, but it still doesn't make them comparable to many other classes. |
| 213 | ** Geth characters become this with the Hunter Mode ability, a sort of anti-Tech Armor that halves your max shields for a set of offensive buffs. |
| 214 | ** For the N7 Destroyer in the Soldier class, the cost for having a shoulder-mounted auto rocket launcher comes at the price of about 500 shield power drop. |
| 215 | * GlitchEpisode: The climax of the ''Citadel'' DLC features CAT-6 mercenaries taking over the ''[[CoolStarship Normandy]]'' with the aid of the Identity Thief, then sabotaging [[BenevolentAI EDI]] so she can't stop them. As a result, (if she's with you) [[SpaceshipGirl EDI's mobile platform]] abruptly shuts down; when she reboots, she's sporting [[ComicallyCrossEyed a cross eye]] and missing her usual visor. As such, she spends the rest of the mission seething with rage at the violation of her body until Shepard is able to eliminate CAT-6 and restore EDI's control - whereupon [[BewareTheNiceOnes she takes immediate revenge]] on the one surviving mercenary by using drones to repeatedly tazer him. |
| 216 | * GlowingEyes: In the ''From Ashes'' DownloadableContent, Shepard's eyes glow green when they interface with the Prothean data and accesses Javik's memories. |
| 217 | ** [[spoiler:In the Synthesis ending, everyone's eyes glow green]]. |
| 218 | ** The casino infiltration part of the Citadel DLC mission has Shepard wearing contacts to allow them to see the wiring throughout the casino. It causes their eyes to glow gold. |
| 219 | ** Shepard's Renegade scarring causes this. |
| 220 | * AGodAmI: |
| 221 | ** [[spoiler: In the extended cut version of the Control ending, Shepard becomes the new master of the Reapers. A Paragon Shepard vows to protect the entire galaxy (rather than just one species, as the Illusive Man would have done). A Renegade Shepard wants to use the Reapers to destroy all who oppose their vision of peace.]] |
| 222 | ** Despite losing their galactic empire to the Reapers, [[spoiler:the Leviathans still seem to have this opinion of themselves. Partly justified: they did create the Catalyst, and the Catalyst [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Leviathan designed the Reapers to look like them.]]]] |
| 223 | * GodzillaThreshold: It's ''definitely'' been reached. |
| 224 | ** Hackett admits that not even the people building the Crucible really know what it will do if fired, comparing it to the fears that the first use of the atomic bomb would ignite Earth's atmosphere. They just do not have any other options. Quoth the Codex: "Staggering financial costs were disregarded in the common effort to create something, ''anything'', that could stop the Reapers." |
| 225 | ** Primarch Victus of the Turian Hierarchy remarks that it is entirely possible that the krogan and turians will wind up at war again after the Reapers are defeated if the genophage is cured, but if the genophage is not cured then there will not be any turians or krogan left. |
| 226 | ** The Codex entry "Desperate Measures" discusses just when the point is reached that makes horrendous destruction and sacrifice an acceptable result of stopping the Reapers. The two proposed strategies, destroying the mass relays to strand the Reapers where they are and using starships as [[RammingAlwaysWorks suicide weapons]], are both dismissed not because of the massive losses in life they would entail, but because they would simply not be effective at stopping the Reapers. |
| 227 | ** A retroactive one is applied to the ''[[VideoGame/MassEffect2 Arrival]]'', where upon the Reapers arrival at Earth, most of the galaxy realise that the Shepard's destruction of the Alpha Relay and the Bahak System was ''completely'' justified and bought them all some precious time. |
| 228 | ** On a smaller scale of reaction, the Reaper war has prompted the Turian Hierarchy to disseminate military-grade hardware to everyone: The Krysae anti-materiel rifle's fabrication specs were released deliberately onto the extranet, so anyone with a sufficient fabricator can produce one to join the fight. |
| 229 | ** After the fall of [[spoiler:Thessia]], Garrus convinces Primarch Victus to hold back the turian fleet attempting to retake Palaven for the Crucible. He admits to Shepard what an enormous gamble it is, but acknowledges that it's become the only way for his race to have a chance at surviving the war. |
| 230 | * GoldenEnding: While it could be argued that there is no such thing as a truly "golden" ending for this series, there are obviously ones that are better than others, mostly depending on your EMS level. Any choice made with an EMS level below 2,350 will [[spoiler:cause widespread damage/death to the galaxy,]] and if the EMS is below 2,650, the [[spoiler:Destroy option will still cause major destruction.]] Disregarding that, the ending choices themselves can be seen as better than the others, depending on how you view them. |
| 231 | ** Destroy: [[spoiler:You completely wipe out the Reapers, and ensure that they will never threaten the galaxy again. If you have an EMS rating of 3,500 or above, you even get a very short cutscene implying that Shepard survived the blast. However, this option will also kill the geth and EDI, and the Catalyst believes that without the Reapers to harvest them, synthetics will eventually go to war with organics again.]] |
| 232 | ** Control: [[spoiler:If you play mostly Paragon, you will get a speech from the Shepard/Reaper consciousness saying how Shepard's sacrifice and the sacrifices of others will not be forgotten, and that s/he will strive to protect and save the galaxy from all future threats, while also using the knowledge and strength of the Reapers to help build it stronger than it already is. This also has the plus of allowing at least some form of Shepard to continue to communicate with their surviving friends. If you play mostly Neutral or Renegade, you will get somewhat and substantially harsher speeches, respectively. And there's always the fear that [[FullCircleRevolution Shepard could end up coming to the same conclusion that the Catalyst did.]]]] |
| 233 | ** Synthesis: [[spoiler:Organics and synthetics are rewritten on a fundamental level, the Reapers included; as the Catalyst puts it, it is the ultimate solution and level of evolution, and that the completion of the Crucible proves that. There's even a wonderfully heartwarming speech from EDI about how she is now alive, and can fully comprehend organics, and they can now fully comprehend synthetics. The Reapers aren't controlled, but are willingly working with the other species to help rebuild and grow. On the flip-side, however, Shepard is now completely dead, unlike with the other two choices, and the idea of having one person choose to completely rewrite the entire galaxy's genetic code without permission does come off as rather unethical.]] |
| 234 | ** The Rejection Ending is almost universally considered the worst, with practically no redeeming values. [[spoiler:[[ItsAWonderfulFailure Shepard dies, the galactic races die, the Reaping Cycle continues.]] Nothing changes. The only glimmer of hope is a memory cache left by Liara that, if found by future civilizations, may help stop the Cycle the next time it happens.]] |
| 235 | * GoldenPath: |
| 236 | ** Getting the best ending for the "Priority: Rannoch" questline ([[spoiler:the one where the geth and quarians make peace]]) requires you to earn a particular points value based on actions taken throughout the trilogy. [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Priority:_Rannoch#Aftermath The Mass Effect wiki has the full details.]] This unlocks a Reputation check where Paragon Shepard [[spoiler:makes a speech begging the quarians to cease fire]], and Renegade Shepard [[spoiler:bitches them out and tells them they're done saving their asses and they can cut it out or get slaughtered]]. |
| 237 | ** In a variant of this trope, the Golden Path for "Priority: Tuchanka" ''changes'' depending on which choices you made in the previous two games. [[spoiler: If you killed Wrex in ''Mass Effect 1'', you're better off ''not'' curing the genophage since Wreav won't discover the deception and you get both krogan and salarian support. This will also let Mordin live if Eve also died. But if you spared Wrex, you're better off curing the genophage so Wrex won't get pissed off and take hundreds of War Assets away from you before you're forced to kill him. It doesn't hurt that if the Salarian Councilor survives the following mission, the Salarian STG and military give the Dalatress the finger and support Shepard ''anyway'', which is further bolstered if Kirrahe also survived]]. |
| 238 | ** The best outcome of the Rachni storyline requires you to [[spoiler:have saved the queen in the first game and then saved her again in this game. Then, if Grunt is loyal, he will survive as well, netting you a total of 125 in War Assets. If you killed the rachni queen in ''Mass Effect'' you're better off saving the Aralakh Company instead as the queen's replacement is a Reaper construct who can't be trusted, but the total score is not as high as it would've been if you had the rachni on your side.]] |
| 239 | ** To get the best outcome [[spoiler: where ''every'' possible race survives and even thrives you have to have kept Wrex, the rachni queen, Legion, Tali, Thane, and Mordin alive, get Tali exonerated, and convince Mordin to save the Genophage research. As long as you choose Control or Synthesis at the end, not a single race has to be exterminated.]] |
| 240 | ** Several individual companions also live or die in this game based on if you did their loyalty quest in the second game or not. Complete them all and, with the right choices, you only [[spoiler:lose Legion, Thane and Mordin (or, if Wrex died in the first game, he and Eve can take Mordin's place).]] |
| 241 | * GondorCallsForAid: Basically the premise of the entire game, deconstructed in showing just how difficult it is to acquire allies when resources are stretched thin and every race having bad blood with at least one other species (turians/salarians vs. krogan, quarians vs. geth, humans vs. batarians, and more. Even the asari, not at odds with anybody, refuse to help, citing as justification the need to protect their own planet). Almost all plot-relevant missions are about you negotiating away centuries of hostilities and bartering for support in just about every theater of the war. |
| 242 | * GoodBadBugs: In-universe example. After the infamous Fatal Error incident in the Armax Arsenal Arena is resolved, the Armax IT team renders the resulting hodge-podge of hologram artifacts and random bits from other arenas into a usable arena, ''not'' capable of truly killing like it was before. |
| 243 | * GoodCannotComprehendEvil: After Ashley discovers what Cerberus was doing at [[spoiler:Sanctuary]], once she is back aboard the ''Normandy'' she explains to Shepard that she simply ''cannot'' understand the kind of thinking that went into something like that. She also says that she is ''glad'' that she cannot follow that line of thinking, since it makes her feel human. |
| 244 | * GoodCopBadCop: |
| 245 | ** One of the bits of info you can read on Liara's Shadow Broker Terminal details two Alliance intel operatives interrogating a Cerberus Phantom. They start the good cop/bad cop routine... and then her face explodes. Looks like the Illusive Man was listening in [[CallBack when Mordin said]] that ocular nerve flashbangs work better than suicide pills hidden in teeth. |
| 246 | ** In the Citadel DLC, when [[spoiler:you find out that Elijah Khan was killed before you could reach him in the Casino infiltration mission]], Garrus and Kaidan have lines mentioning this. "And I had this whole bad/good cop[[note]]Garrus and Kaidan respectively[[/note]] routine ready..." |
| 247 | * GoodGuyBar: The Purgatory Bar on the Citadel, judging by the amount of Alliance and turian military soldiers hanging out there. However, with the capture of Omega by Cerberus, Purgatory is now serving Aria T'Loak and other criminals. [[OpenSecret Despite its size and popularity, Avina doesn't recognize that it exists]]. |
| 248 | * GoodIsNotSoft: Liara's first appearance in this game has her being chased by Cerberus troopers through an [[AirVentEscape air vent]] on Mars. She exits the vent, and uses a Singularity to immobilize both troopers as they try to follow her out. After this, she shoots both troopers while they are in the air, then casually [[DoubleTap shoots each one again]] after they hit the ground, with an icy cold expression on her face. She's come a long way from the timid archeologist [[NeutralFemale who spent her entire first battle huddled in the middle of the room]] in [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 the original game.]] |
| 249 | * GoodPaysBetter: Taking Paragon choices throughout the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series results in far greater war assets than Renegade choices. Justified since Paragon Shepard is, in general, much more conciliatory than Renegade Shepard and is thus much better at building alliances. |
| 250 | * GoodRunningEvil: [[spoiler:Potentially how the series can end, if a Paragon Shepard takes control of the Reapers in the finale]]. |
| 251 | * GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Padok Wiks (Mordin's replacement if he dies in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'') if he successfully saves the genophage cure.]] |
| 252 | * GrandFinale: The main game is the end of Shepard's story and the war with the Reapers. The Citadel DLC, the final story mission for Shepard's team in the franchise (though not chronologically), goes all out. |
| 253 | * GratuitousNinja: Cerberus Phantoms are described by the official site as "Goddamn ninjas on speed!" |
| 254 | * GravityScrew: The beginning of the mission aboard [[spoiler:the geth dreadnought]] has you walking through the destroyed remnants of a docking extension tube on the ship, and sometimes the only footholds to move forward are on the ceiling. |
| 255 | * GreatBigLibraryOfEverything: The ''Citadel'' [[DownloadableContent DLC]] has the crew visiting the Citadel Archives, a vast collection of material, physical, electronic, and holographic historical records from across all Citadel Space going back to when the Citadel Council was first formed. Much of information there is also highly classified, and even C-Sec cannot access the information without proper cause and authorization. It turns out that the mere presence of a Spectre can cause full disclosure of classified information, as this reveals that the Council really did know that the "Geth Dreadnought" in the first game was actually a Reaper when you come across a holo-archive pertaining to it. |
| 256 | * TheGreatExterminator: At the end of the game, regardless of the decision made, [[spoiler:Shepard ''will'' deal with the Reaper threat one way or another, once and for all]]. As shown in the DistantFinale, their actions have made them a truly legendary figure. |
| 257 | * GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler: The Catalyst, an ancient AI that created the Reapers and started the repeating cycle in the first place. It does not appear until the final scene of the game, where it acknowledges that its plans have been defeated and it needs to develop a new "solution" with Shepard's help]]. |
| 258 | * GrenadeLauncher: The M-37 Falcon "assault rifle" is actually one of these that handles like a carbine. It can DoubleTap nearly every enemy from the time you equip it to the end of the game. One shot wrecks their shield/armor, another shot smashes them into paste. The tradeoff is that it only has a six-round clip and a thirty round reserve (with upgrades). |
| 259 | * GrenadeSpam: |
| 260 | ** The gold challenges on multiplayer have had quite a few recognize this in effect; it in fact led to the creation of the trope page. |
| 261 | ** As well as normal grenades, Centurions have smoke grenade spam, using two or three at a time to block your vision, in between throwing normal grenades. Rinse and repeat when the smoke clears as many times as they take to die, it could be three or four cycles. That's at least twenty-four grenades they're carrying, a single soldier. |
| 262 | ** The N7 Demolisher which, with the right equipment and skills, can carry around 13 grenades. They're also the only class with access to two grenade powers. Plus they can resupply themselves with two grenades every few seconds. |
| 263 | ** In Multiplayer, the Collectors are back. And Harbinger can '''ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL''' over more than just regular collectors. Instead of energy blasts, Possessed Scions shoot projectiles that erupt into clusters of 6 grenades. Harbinger can posses ''3 enemies'' on gold difficulty. Do the math if those 3 happen to be Scions. |
| 264 | ** Also, the Geth Bombers in multiplayer. In later waves, you can quickly find 20+ grenades at your feet because you neglected the few small, floating robots while trying not to be roasted by pyros. |
| 265 | ** The [=CAT6=] mercs in Citadel live and breathe this trope, throwing grenades that split into five bomblets. Possessed Scions in multiplayer also gain a second cannon that fires cluster grenades. |
| 266 | * GreyAndGrayMorality: |
| 267 | ** The geth vs. quarian war. The geth just wanted to evolve on their own, while the quarians feared that the geth would rebel and kill them all off. Talking to Legion and Tali sheds a lot of light on this in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', and your decisions will affect the final outcome. |
| 268 | ** The conflict between the krogan and the Council races is, historically, a question of what species is exterminated. The krogan truly were an expanding, overpopulating empire that would have exterminated other species if left unchecked, but the genophage simply turned ''them'' into the dying species. Even those who created the genophage view it as a horrible action, but one required to prevent more horrible actions in turn. Mordin sums this up back in the second game as "save galaxy from krogan, save krogan from galaxy." |
| 269 | ** There is no clear-cut Paragon or Renegade ending choice, and the game goes out of its way to ensure that. [[spoiler:Destroying the Reapers is argued for by Anderson in the preceding cutscene, but choosing that results in the death of EDI, the geth, and every other AI in the galaxy. Commanding the Reapers is proposed by the Illusive Man in that cutscene, no races get sacrificed, and apparently Shepard commands the Reapers to fix the relays and share their powers and knowledge, but Shepard's physical body dies as a result. Synthesis does not result in any genocide or Reaper manipulation, but involves ''forcibly rewriting the entire fabric of life's existence'' without any input or opinion from... well, anybody. (It also kills Shepard, like the Control ending.) All of them involve damaging the mass relay network, so even if you have figured out which ending seems most appropriate, you are still causing something almost everyone can agree is problematic]]. |
| 270 | *** Further moral disorientation is caused by [[spoiler: the fact that the activation station for the Destroy option, the one urged by the honorable, true-blue Anderson and even "enacted" by his avatar, is colored Renegade red and is easier to achieve if the Paragon option to destroy the Collector Base was taken in Mass Effect 2, while the Control option advocated by the ruthless mass-murdering Illusive Man is tinted Paragon blue, and conversely benefits from having preserved the Collector Base.]] |
| 271 | * GuestStarPartyMember: You can use your surviving crew from ''1'' and ''2'' inside of the Armax Arsenal Arena, provided you earn the bronze stars to unlock their permissions. Also, Wrex is a fully functional party member all throughout the ''Citadel'' DLC's events. |
| 272 | * GuideDangIt: The final persuade option [[spoiler: with the Illusive Man]]. You have to have tried to persuade him the same way in ''every other conversation'' you've had with him in the game. Sucks for you if you were button-mashing through the first confrontation in a NewGamePlus and picked a vanilla option. |
| 273 | ** Numerous variables go into whether or not [[spoiler:you can negotiate peace between the geth and the quarians on Rannoch]], including several based on choices in the second game. You may have already made doing so impossible before even playing ''Mass Effect 3''. |
| 274 | ** There is also a bit of this in ensuring that the Virmire Survivor can be talked down during the Citadel Cerberus coup. Miss one or two of these and the standoff doesn't end well. |
| 275 | * GuiltBasedGaming: More so than either of the previous games. ''Besides'' the ability to [[EtTuBrute kill off several close allies]] if you so choose, missing the Grissom Academy side-quest leads to [[spoiler: Jack being kidnapped and experimented on by Cerberus AGAIN after she had finally managed to build a life for herself. You get to hear records of her being tortured when you hit the Cerberus base... shortly before having to kill the Phantom they turned her into]]. |
| 276 | * GunAccessories: Gun modifications return, and each one visibly attaches to the weapon (if external, like a scope) or causes changes in the weapon coloration (if internal, like a heat sink expansion). |
| 277 | * GunshipRescue: |
| 278 | ** The retrofitted ''Normandy'' makes its first appearance in this manner. |
| 279 | ** The biggest example is Shepard [[spoiler: being given a laser targeting device for the ''Normandy'' to take out a Reaper construct and when the "construct" turned out to be a Reaper itself, Shepard called in the whole damn quarian Migrant Fleet for an orbital strike]]. |
| 280 | ** A villainious example occurs on [[spoiler:Thessia, where a Cerberus gunship gives Kai Leng the edge he needs to snatch the Prothean VI from Shepard]]. |
| 281 | [[/folder]] |
| 282 | |
| 283 | [[folder:H]] |
| 284 | * HackerCave: Liara sets up one on the ''Normandy'' to continue her work as the Shadow Broker while traveling with Shepard. |
| 285 | * HandCannon: The Carnifex returns from the second game, but it's far outshone by two new additions. The first is the Paladin, a variant of the Carnifex so hard to come by it has to be requisitioned using Spectre authority. It only holds twenty shots, but makes up for it by dealing more damage than most ''sniper rifles''. The second is the Talon, sidearm of choice for Cerberus Guardians. [[RevolversAreJustBetter It's a revolver]]. [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter That fires shotgun blasts]]. Both of these pale in comparison to the Executioner, a single-shot krogan pistol made for one-shotting other krogan. It is like a sniper rifle [[DisSimile without the sniping or the rifle]]. |
| 286 | * {{Handwave}}: The Widow sniper rifle and Claymore shotgun can now be used by fragile humans and salarians in multiplayer, despite being explicitly stated to have bone-shattering recoil. Good thing "trial-and-error testing" "eventually produced less hazardous versions of these weapons." |
| 287 | * HarderThanHard: Hardcore and Insanity difficulties return to this game with the recent major upgrades to the combat AI, the Earth multiplayer DLC introduced the platinum difficulty level to multiplayer, and the Retaliation DLC upgraded the combat AI again while also introducing environmental hazards to several of the maps. |
| 288 | * HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee: The game starts with Shepard trying to help the Alliance Defense Committee make sense of the Reapers. |
| 289 | * HeadsIWinTailsYouLose: Fighting Kai Leng on [[spoiler:Thessia]]. He has gunship support that will target you every time you take down his shields, and eventually it switches to a cutscene. |
| 290 | * HeelRealization / HeelFaceTurn: Almost all of the ex-Cerberus personnel. Most of them defect to the Alliance and become [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/War_Assets/Ex-Cerberus War Assets]]. |
| 291 | * HelplessWithLaughter: In the ''Citadel'' DLC, it's possible to find EDI trying and failing to sweet-talk Joker into dancing with her; Shepard, notoriously bad dancer, attempts to resolve the situation by offering to dance with her instead... whereupon Joker cracks up and goes on laughing for a full twenty seconds, unable to do anything but giggle helplessly at the idea. |
| 292 | * HeroKiller: Kai Leng. [[spoiler: Ignoring his novel exploits and looking only at the game, his potential victims list can include two former squadmates, namely "designed to be perfect" Miranda and super-assassin Thane. If Thane is not around, then his spot may be taken by Major Kirrahe, certified STG badass of "hold the line" fame.]] |
| 293 | * HeroOfAnotherStory: |
| 294 | ** The way multiplayer is justified; players take on the roles of an elite team assisting Shepard in tackling hotspots. |
| 295 | ** Each of the squadmates introduced in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' is off doing their own thing: Miranda continues to fight her father, Jacob is protecting a group of ex-Cerberus scientists, Jack is mentoring biotic students at Grissom Academy, Grunt is fighting off indoctrinated rachni, and Samara is investigating an Ardat-Yakshi monastery that went dark. Meanwhile, Thane is protecting a member of the Citadel Council, and Mordin is working on secret biotech research. If you had the appropriate DLC installed in ''ME 2'', Zaeed is busy making life miserable for Cerberus by accepting only contracts that target them, and Kasumi has finally leaked the highly sensitive intel she acquired in her LoyaltyMission to a salarian Spectre, who uses it to (temporarily) save the hanar homeworld from the Reapers. |
| 296 | * HeroicComedicSociopath: Zaeed and Garrus fall into this territory during Shepard's house party. Are exploding glass wall fixtures, a booby-trapped kitchen with cyanide, and rearranging the apartment so it's easier to defend going to be comedic when they're used? Probably not. Is it comedic the way Zaeed and Garrus discuss it? Hell yes. |
| 297 | * HeroicSacrifice: WordOfGod is that "victory through sacrifice" is a CentralTheme in this game, so a player can expect quite a few: |
| 298 | ** [[spoiler:Tarquin Victus, the son of the new turian Primarch, can sacrifice himself on Tuchanka to prevent an ancient bomb from being detonated by Cerberus]]. |
| 299 | ** [[spoiler:Thane performs one to save the salarian Councilor from Kai Leng if Thane survived ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''; otherwise, Major Kirrahe may replace Thane; if Shepard is Paragon, Mordin or Padok Wiks performs one to cure the genophage in a collapsing building where they are killed in an explosion a few seconds after the cure is complete. Legion also pulls one if Shepard sides with the geth or uses the Paragon/Renegade choice to [[TakeAThirdOption take a third option, since the geth cannot achieve true sentience unless Legion uploads all his newly-Reaper-enhanced code to the geth consensus, which "kills" Legion.]]]] |
| 300 | ** [[spoiler:Two of the ending choices involve Shepard willingly sacrificing themselves to end the Reaper threat. Shepard may also perish if they choose to destroy the Reapers, though a high Effective Military Strength will result in their survival]]. |
| 301 | ** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in several missions involving [=ME2=] squadmates if they were loyal in the previous game: |
| 302 | *** [[spoiler: If Aralakh Squad is left behind to buy the rachni queen time to escape, Grunt will turn and tell Shepard to go back to the shuttle without him [[YouShallNotPass while he holds off the Reaper-converted rachni]]. As Shepard and company are arriving at the shuttle, Grunt emerges from the cave, [[BloodSplatteredWarrior covered in blood]], and asks if anyone has something to eat]]. |
| 303 | *** [[spoiler: In Kasumi's quest on the Citadel, she is caught in an explosion as she attempts to halt the virus upload that will deactivate the defenses of the Hanar homeworld. Though Jondum Bau believes her to be dead, Shepard realizes the "body" was a decoy and gets her to reveal herself after Bau leaves]]. |
| 304 | ** You can also learn of several minor and offscreen characters committing these. Notably Kal'Reegar (the quarian marine) sacrifices himself to make sure an important turian communications relay gets repaired, Aresh (the antagonist from Jack's loyalty mission) sacrifices himself so a ship full of "less fortunate lottery winner" children can escape from the Reapers, the krogan and turian insurgents during the Miracle At Palaven sacrifice themselves to smuggle bombs into Reaper processing centers and then detonate the bombs, and the Second Alliance Fleet at the Battle of Arcturus Station sacrifices itself so the First and Third Alliance Fleets can retreat. |
| 305 | ** In the Omega DLC [[spoiler:[[RebelLeader Nyreen]] gets this while rescuing civilians under fire from Adjutants. She activates a belt of grenades, then pulls up a biotic barrier, sealing the Adjutants and her in it. The explosion disintegrates everything in the bubble]]. |
| 306 | ** In the Extended Cut DLC, [[spoiler: the Refusal Ending pretty much turns ''Mass Effect'''s story into this for the entire galaxy. Shepard rejects each of the options given to him by the Catalyst; unfortunately, this results in the Crucible being shut down, and the Reapers pursue the cycle unhindered. However, there was enough time for the galaxy to [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture leave a message behind for future generations]], and the epilogue reveals that while the Reapers may have won this battle, they ultimately lose the war]]. |
| 307 | * HeterosexualLifePartners: |
| 308 | ** As of this installment Male Shepard and Garrus have reached this point. |
| 309 | --->'''Shepard''': "There is no Shepard without Vakarian." |
| 310 | ** Shepards of either gender will call a non-romanced Kaidan "my brother" during their lunch at the Citadel. |
| 311 | ** Paragon Shepard and Wrex, if all efforts have been made to cure the genophage throughout the series. |
| 312 | --> '''Wrex:''' You've been a champion to the krogan people, a friend of Clan Urdnot, and a brother/sister to me. For every krogan born after this day, the name "Shepard" will mean "hero!" |
| 313 | * HiddenElfVillage: A ''planetary'' example appears in the Leviathan DLC. [[spoiler: Turns out the Leviathans, the race responsible for creating the Catalyst, have been hiding out on a backwater ocean world ever since their creation betrayed them and slaughtered most of their race to create Harbinger. Despite still being by far the most powerful race in the galaxy, they've pretty much resigned themselves to staying in seclusion while the Reapers continue harvesting all organic life (except for the Leviathans, of course). [[WakingTheSleepingGiant Then Shepard comes knocking on their front door...]]]] |
| 314 | * HideYourChildren: |
| 315 | ** Averted in the game's CGI trailer, which shows a little girl playing with a toy spaceship in a sunflower field as a Reaper looms ominously overhead. In the next scene the sunflower field has been transformed into a blackened wasteland, and Shepard [[EmpathyDollShot picks up the girl's toy spaceship from the ashes]], implying that she did not survive - or worse, got turned into a husk. |
| 316 | ** {{Averted|Trope}} in the first ten minutes of the game. Shepard comes across a young boy hiding in an air duct who refuses to let Shepard help him (and then [[StealthHiBye disappears]] when Shepard briefly looks away). Later, when Shepard leaves Earth, (s)he sees the boy get onto an escape shuttle--which is promptly destroyed by a Reaper. |
| 317 | ** However, in the rest of the game, you never see any children, even at the refugee camp, and child corpses never show up. |
| 318 | * HijackingCthulhu: This is a recurring point of contention: |
| 319 | ** [[KnightTemplar The Illusive Man]] believes he can do this to [[EldritchAbomination the Reapers]], and use them to bring about humanity's dominance over the galaxy. [[spoiler: Despite all his efforts, he ends up indoctrinated by the end of the game]]. |
| 320 | ** [[spoiler: [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard]] can do this in the Control ending.]] |
| 321 | * HistoryRepeats: On Thessia, you learn that [[spoiler:the Protheans were sabotaged from within by a splinter group who wanted to dominate the Reapers instead of destroy them and turned out to be indoctrinated. This is echoed in the current cycle by Cerberus.]] |
| 322 | * HitboxDissonance: |
| 323 | ** The Geth Pyro's flamethrower has a much longer range than the graphic would indicate; a subversion of ConvectionSchmonvection. |
| 324 | ** A more classical example is the arms of Brutes during their charge. |
| 325 | * HiveMind: |
| 326 | ** [[spoiler: Shepard in the Control ending -- their consciousness is distributed throughout the whole Reaper fleet.]] |
| 327 | ** The geth, as usual. [[spoiler: They may unhive somewhat and become individuals, depending on Shepard's decisions. They stay interconnected though]]. |
| 328 | * HoistByHisOwnPetard: |
| 329 | ** On a remote planet, a batarian survey team discovered a Reaper corpse, which "disappeared" when one of their capital ships visited the system a short while later. They then denied that the corpse ever existed, despite video evidence from the other races. It turns out the Batarians took it back to their homeworld for study, where it indoctrinated several scientists and officials who then sabotaged their planet's defenses when the rest of the Reapers showed up. The Batarians became the first civilization to fall to the Reapers' invasion. |
| 330 | ** Shepard can acquire just about every weapon enemies use against them over the course of the game, including faction-specific ones like Geth assault rifles and shotguns or Cerberus' Hornet, Harrier and co. Nothing more cathartic than shoving an [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter M-358]] [[RevolversAreJustBetter Talon]] against a [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe Guardian]]'s mail slot and blowing his head off with the same gun his ilk constantly harasses you with. |
| 331 | ** A lot of warships have been retrofitted with Thanix cannons by the time the Reapers roll in; the one dreadnought the Vol Protectorate ever built is actually equipped with nothing ''but'' these very powerful guns. Since Thanix cannons are reverse-engineered from Sovereign's remains, legions of Reaper forces get blown to bits by their very own weapons tech. |
| 332 | ** The weapon upgrade mechanic can lead to a minor case for the player. Testing has revealed that if an enemy wields the same weapon model as Shepard does (like a Hornet SMG for instance), upgrading that weapon also upgrades it for the bad guys. Sticking with the aforementioned example means that upgrading the Hornet to level X makes any Cerberus Trooper plus the dreaded Dragoons deal significantly more damage for relatively little gain on the player's part. It's therefore advisable to avoid relying on guns that enemy troops wield as their standard armaments. Thankfully, most of these weapons tend to be overshadowed by much stronger guns anyway, so with the possible exception of the Talon pistol and the Phaeston assault rifle, this shouldn't be much of a problem for most players. |
| 333 | * HollywoodDarkness: Averted. There are multiple places that are pitch black, forcing Shepard and the squad to turn on the flashlights on their guns. Outside of the beam, you cannot see anything. |
| 334 | * HollywoodSilencer: The ''Citadel'' DLC adds the M-11 Suppressor, a variant on the ever-popular Carnifex heavy pistol with a black finish and a huge silencer mounted to the muzzle. True to form and name, its report is the very low-key "pop" sound everyone expects to hear from a silenced gun, instead of the earsplitting crash its cousins tend to produce with every pull of the trigger. The reasoning behind this particular example makes even less sense than usual, considering how a real-life suppressor is designed to muffle the sounds of the expanding propellants inside today's firearms (which simply doesn't exist in mass accelerator weapons), and since mass effect guns rely on nothing but projectile speed to deal damage, modifying a handgun to fire sand grain-sized metal particles at subsonic speeds would make that weapon utterly useless. That doesn't translate into the game, of course, where the Suppressor serves as a powerful handgun with a ridiculously high headshot damage multiplier. |
| 335 | * HollywoodTactics: Inverted with Lieutenant Victus on Tuchanka. He made the right call to avoid an obvious suicide mission in charging a fortified position with no cover, opting instead to take a covert route. When that went bad, instead of "You made the right call and it went bad", all he gets is a near mutiny from his soldiers and even Shepard telling him he fucked up. All this leads to a HeroicSacrifice for the lieutenant as a way to [[HonorBeforeReason reclaim his honor]]. |
| 336 | * HolodeckMalfunction: Toward the end of the "Citadel" DLC's Armax Arsenal Arena sidequest, Shepard is asked to investigate one. [[spoiler:It ends with a glitch forcing Shepard to fight the strongest enemies in the game. If Shepard loses, the feedback will kill him or her]]. |
| 337 | * HonorBeforeReason: [[spoiler: Samara tries to kill herself to avoid being forced by the justicar code to kill her last surviving daughter. Shepard can stop her with a Paragon interrupt]]. |
| 338 | * HopeSpot: All over the place. To name a few: [[spoiler:The kid getting onto the shuttle (it is blown up); finding Rila intact in the monastery (she has started to transform into a Banshee); trying to save Tali if you allow the geth to destroy the quarians (not even the Paragon interupt can stop her from committing suicide); finding the key to completing the Crucible on Thessia (Kai Leng steals the information, Thessia falls); launching missiles at a Reaper after a ''grueling'' ground battle (they miss)]]. |
| 339 | * HopeSpringsEternal: Regardless of which ending occurs, [[spoiler: the Stargazer retells the story to his grandson, revealing that life managed to survive, and speaks of traveling to the stars]]. |
| 340 | * HopelessBossFight: The game does this repeatedly to ensure that, no matter what the player does or how powerful their Shepard is, things proceed according to the script: |
| 341 | ** On Mars, there's a ChaseScene between Shepard's squad and Dr. Eva Core. If you imported a high-level character from ''[=ME2=]'' (or are doing the NewGamePlus), Shepard should be able to kill her several times over by the end of the chase. But if you did that, she wouldn't have a chance to [[spoiler:hospitalize the Virmire Survivor for the first third of the game]], so all of your powers either bounce off her harmlessly or inflict only ScratchDamage. |
| 342 | ** On Thessia, an asari gunship pilot is forced to [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice herself]] to save Shepard and company from a pair of Harvesters. By this point in the game, your characters are probably entirely capable of killing ''normal'' Harvesters with ease...but ''these'' Harvesters each have enough health to make them borderline invulnerable. |
| 343 | ** And again on Thessia, [[spoiler:you cannot beat Kai Leng]]. You can reduce his shields to nothing (several times), but he'll just cloak and rejuvenate while a gunship provides covering fire. (Naturally, you can't even try to shoot the gunship down.) And once he decides to stop toying with Shepard and leave, CutsceneIncompetence ensures you can't catch him. |
| 344 | * HopelessWar: The entire game drives this point home. Earth is overrun in a matter of hours and the turians, the most powerful military in the entire galaxy, are just ''barely'' holding their ground against a portion of the Reaper fleet. The Reaper fleet as a whole is simply unstoppable by conventional means. [[GodzillaThreshold Which is why everyone is putting their faith in a weapon that nobody knows anything about.]] |
| 345 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: While mingling during the casino infiltration in "Citadel", Shepard can talk to a politician who has a history of accepting contributions from criminals, such as Elijah Kahn, Aria T'Loak, and Tela Vasir. The politician is not corrupt; she is just really naive and takes their claims that they are law-abiding citizens at face value. |
| 346 | * HotBlade: Shepard can now wield an Omni-Blade, using the tech from the Omni-Tool. The Omni-Blade is forged by the omni-tool's onboard fabricator. A hot carbon based blade held in place by a mass effect field that is diamond hard. The blade is often tinkered with by the user to produce electrified and twin blade versions. The Engineer takes this trope to its logical extreme by having blade coated in burning hot plasma literally setting it ablaze. The N7 Shadow gets to wield a more traditional sword, which can be set ablaze with the proper evolution. |
| 347 | * HotSpringsEpisode: The Citadel DLC is both this and a trilogy epilogue of sorts. After a CurbStompBattle with a QuirkyMiniBossSquad, Shepard and crew spend a few days partying, shopping, drinking, dancing and... well, the rest has to be seen to be believed. |
| 348 | * HotterAndSexier: Mass Effect was never a stranger to [[MaleGaze sexy women with enticing clothing]], but ''3'' is the most clear-cut case. Female Shepard and most female non-player characters have gotten a significant boob-job for ''3'', as has Shepard's armor's chest plate. More damning is EDI (a SexBot that is [[MemeticMutation quite top-heavy]]) and Ashley, who's design used to be that of a pragmatic soldier, but was changed for the third game to have her hair down, while wearing a dress with heels and an open neckline. Female Shepard's gait was also changed to become bouncy and chest-forward - in the previous games, she shared male Shepard's gorilla-like trot. |
| 349 | * HubUnderAttack: Cerberus, which was co-opted by the Reapers between games, attempts to mount a [[TheCoup coup d'etat]] against the Citadel Council midway through the game, forcing Shepard to battle through the Citadel a second time to reach and protect the Council. |
| 350 | * HumongousMecha: {{Justified|Trope}}: the usual SquareCubeLaw issues are negated by use of element zero. Multiple battles take place on foot against Destroyer-class Reapers, which are 160-200 meter tall ships that are built out of the "lesser" species of each cycle. The Sovereign-class Reapers are a whopping ''2 kilometers'' in length, dwarfing even the largest ships in the Council and Alliance fleets. |
| 351 | * {{Hypocrite}}: |
| 352 | ** The salarian dalatrass accuses Shepard of being a bully when the Commander, Victus and Wrex[=/=]Wreav tell her that unless she gives them the location of the krogan female immune to the genophage, they will leave the salarians to the Reapers all because she refuses to give into the ''one'' demand the krogan have in exchange for their assistance. [[spoiler:Before the mission to cure the genophage, the dalatrass contacts Shepard and threatens to withhold salarian support unless Shepard sabotages the cure]]Even worse, [[spoiler:she's preparing to have the yahg uplifted, which are arguably more dangerous than the krogan]]. |
| 353 | *** [[spoiler:Even worse again is that the dalatrass effectively [[BaitAndSwitch bait and switches]] Shepard if they side with her in sabotaging the cure; in her message she promises "full salarian support" for the war effort - fleets, soldiers, and scientists for the crucible. However, if you do sabotage the cure, your salarian reward amounts to all of a single fleet; while this asset is individually among the numerically higest available, it falls far short of her promised reward. [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves If Wrex is the krogan leader, you come out much worse off in the end for siding with her.]]]] |
| 354 | ** The [[spoiler:asari]] turn out to be huge hypocrites after its revealed that they've been [[spoiler: hiding an intact Prothean beacon on their homeworld. Keeping all its knowledge for themselves to maintain a technological advantage over everyone else. While passing laws forcing all of the Citadel races to share any beacons they find.]] |
| 355 | [[/folder]] |
| 356 | |
| 357 | [[folder:I]] |
| 358 | * IAmAHumanitarian: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Cannibals]], husks created by fusing humans and batarians, regain health and gain armor plating by eating fallen enemies (or allies). |
| 359 | ** As of the Retaliation DLC, [[JustEatHim this includes fallen squadmates.]] |
| 360 | ** Javik frequently mentions the Protheans eating many of the races of the current cycle. Especially salarians. |
| 361 | * IAteWhat: Kaidan is alarmed when he learns that the Frozen Pyjak Traynor gives him in ''Citadel'' was made from the contents of her spill pad. |
| 362 | * ICanExplain: During the Citadel Coup, this is Paragon Shepard's exact response [[spoiler: when the Virmire survivor wants to know why [[NotWhatItLooksLike Shepard is holding most of the council at gunpoint]].]] |
| 363 | * IDieFree: The Refusal ending. |
| 364 | * IfIWantedYouDead: Species-wide example: if confronted by Wreav about his part in modifying the genophage, Mordin reminds Wreav that he could have sterilized the krogan outright, were he so inclined. |
| 365 | * ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Banshees pick you up and impale you ''on their arm'' if you let them get close. [[spoiler:One of them will do this to Rila, Samara's eldest Ardat-Yakshi daughter]]. |
| 366 | ** The new Praetorians that show up with the Collector Faction in multiplayer can also do this. Thankfully their grab animation is slower than the Banshee's, and they're much easier to stagger. |
| 367 | ** And it seems to be a pretty common strategy among batarians, who impale their enemies with their heavy Melee attack, have the Ballistic Blade ability, and created the [[HarpoonGun Kishock Harpoon Gun]]. |
| 368 | * ImprovisedLockpick: In the ''Citadel'' DLC, Samantha Traynor uses her biotic toothbrush to pick the Normandy's vent lock. |
| 369 | * ImStandingRightHere: When Joker comments on EDI's new body, and says that he'd like to take a picture of her, EDI (who is sitting right beside Jeff, and can hear his entire conversation with Shepard) comments in a slightly hurt/embarrassed tone: |
| 370 | --> '''EDI:''' ...I'm right here, Jeff.\ |
| 371 | '''Joker:''' Yes, you are EDI......yes, you are. |
| 372 | * InappropriatelyCloseComrades: The rules about fraternization can be invoked by [[spoiler:Shepard's clone against Samantha Traynor, with whom Shepard may be having a relationship]]. Shep and Vega also talk about it during their meeting in the former's new ''Citadel'' apartment, with Vega claiming he stopped fraternizing when he joined the military. Still doesn't stop him from hooking up with Ashley at the party if Shep encourages them to do so. |
| 373 | * IncapableOfDisobeying: Retroactively subverted when ex-Cerberus agent Miranda Lawson confesses to Shepard that, as the head of the Lazarus Project which brought Shepard BackFromTheDead in ''Mass Effect 2'', she wanted to install a chip in their brain to prevent them from ever turning on Cerberus. Her decision was only overridden by Cerberus' top boss, who wanted Shepard back exactly as they were before death -- and Miranda admits that he was ultimately 100% right and apologizes to Shepard. |
| 374 | * IncompatibleOrientation |
| 375 | ** Samantha Traynor, a romance option for [=FemShep=], turns [=MaleShep=] down if he tries to make a move on her. Later, when Ken and Gabby are talking, Gabby has to tell Ken not to bother flirting with Traynor, since he is not her type. |
| 376 | ** [[RelationshipUpgrade While it can be averted if the player chooses]], it is implied that Kaidan's [[ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe fear of running into this]] is the InUniverse explanation for why he didn't become a GayOption until the third game. |
| 377 | * InfinityPlusOneSword: Most of the Ultra-Rare weapons. The N7 weapons are of note, as they are available right from the start of the game in single-player. If you purchase their upgrades and slap a few mods on them, they quickly become the best weapons in the game. The only real downside is that you [[BribingYourWayToVictory need to pay money for them]]- four of them came with the Collector's Edition, one with the N7 Warfare Gear pack or the ''Omega'' DLC pack, and two with the Groundside Resistance Pack. This isn't a problem in multiplayer, as they're free there, but multiplayer presents a whole new set of problems: Ultra-Rare weapons are notoriously difficult to acquire (average drop rate for a UR per Premium Spectre Pack is approximately one in ten, meaning it takes about one million credits for one upgrade, translating to 13 successful rounds of Gold matches or around 5.5 hours of game time). Additionally, five certain Ultra-Rares used to bbe only obtainable through Commendation Packs, which you get for completing weekly challenges; weekly challenges have been discontinued so these weapons are now in standard rotation within multiplayer packs. Since all of the weapons have to be acquired ten times to reach their full potential, you'll spend a lot of time grinding for their upgrades. Even so, at levels V-X their power is simply unmatched. They're basically a replacement of the Master Spectre Weapons from the first game. |
| 378 | ** The N7 Hurricane may look like an SMG, but it has the power and firing rate of a full sized machine gun, able to chew through even the toughest enemies in seconds, especially if equipped with high level armor piercing rounds. The only downsides are high recoil and low ammo capacity, which are easily bypassed by the Turian Soldier or N7 Destroyer in multiplayer due to their powers and inherent weapon bonuses. Plus, in multiplayer, you won't be using your SMG Rail Amps for anything else. |
| 379 | ** The N7 Crusader is a shotgun that shoots slugs. This is rare in video games (in fact it's the only shotgun in the series that acts like this), but there's a reason why: it gives the Crusader the stopping power and accuracy of a sniper rifle... except it's semi-automatic and can be used on the move. Very useful. |
| 380 | ** The Cerberus Harrier matches the Hurricane's insane damage and fire-rate shot for shot, with significantly less recoil and much more accuracy. It essentially does what all other assault rifles do but better, and its relatively low weight allows it to be used by adepts and engineers without too large a penalty on their cooldowns. |
| 381 | ** The Black Widow and the Javelin are the kings of the sniper rifle category, featuring monstrous per-shot damage and lots of user-friendliness due to a three-shot magazine and an infrared scope respectively. For any infiltrator looking to deal maximum damage, there is no substitute. |
| 382 | ** The M-11 Wraith is the ultimate in short-range shotguns. It is easily powerful enough to one-shot most mooks yet is easily lightweight enough to keep a 200% recharge speed bonus. Its eight-spread shot also synergizes extremely well with the Explosive Burst upgrade of Incendiary Ammo. In pretty much every way possible, the Wraith is ideal for Vanguards. |
| 383 | ** The M-358 Talon has a tighter spread and better DPS than most other full-sized shotguns. Additionally, it is extremely efficient with ammo powers as the shotgun feature spreads the power's abilities much more readily. This allows for a deadly one-two punch with power-based classes, as a single shot from a disruptor-ammo Talon can set up the target for a quick tech burst which the player can detonate, or incendiary ammo priming for a rapid stream of fire explosions. |
| 384 | ** The M7 Lancer, obtainable with the ''Citadel'' [=DLC=], is ''the'' weapon of choice for all power-dependent classes. It may look like the humble M8 Avenger assault rifle but boasts vastly increased damage, good accuracy, very high ROF and a cooldown-based ammo system that frees you from worrying about running out of clips. Most importantly, it's ''extremely'' lightweight; even a halfway upgraded Lancer is barely heavier than a basic pistol, and a fully upgraded one allows even Adepts - the class with the lowest weight capacity - to equip the Lancer and a second, more specialized gun while keeping the full 200% cooldown bonus. Sentinels can use it, run around with Tech Armor (which seriously debuffs cooldown times) and still spam [[StuffBlowingUp Flares]] (base CD: 30 seconds, the longest of any biotic ability) every 5-6 seconds. Oh, and it arguably has [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the most epically noisy report]] of any automatic weapon in the game. |
| 385 | * InformedAttribute: The Brutes are supposed to combine the toughness of a Krogan with the tactical prowess of a Turian. In reality, they just [[AttackAttackAttack charge the player and swing away with their fists]]. |
| 386 | * InjuredPlayerCharacterStage: Near the end of the game Shepard's armor is broken, and most of his/her skin is badly burned. The player must walk, and then crawl, to the Reaper ship anyway, shooting a few enemies on the way with only their pistol. |
| 387 | * InjuredSelfDrag: At the end of "Priority: Tuchanka", [[spoiler:if you choose to murder Mordin Solus to prevent the genophage from being cured, he spends his last moments defiantly crawling towards the computer console he needs to counteract the sabotage despite the [[HandCannon Carnifex]] round in his sternum. Sadly, his body gives out on him before he can fix the cure.]] |
| 388 | * InkSuitActor: Martin Sheen (The Illusive Man), Keith David (Admiral Anderson), Creator/YvonneStrahovski (Miranda Lawson), Seth Green (Joker), and Jessica Chobot (Diana Allers) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfvo5ueKJY8 all look exactly like their characters]]. James Vega is a variation; he looks like Freddie Prinze Jr. but only after bulking up at the gym. Chobot adds a new twist in that she plays a journalist in the game, which is what she is in real life. |
| 389 | * InsaneTrollLogic: An indoctrinated (or possibly just crazy) hanar on the Citadel believes that, since the hanar worship the Protheans and the Protheans were turned into Collectors, that means that the Protheans served the Reapers. Therefore the hanar must serve the Reapers. Shepard even lampshades this when they hear this. |
| 390 | --> '''Shepard:''' You [[AscendedMeme BIG STUPID JELLYFISH!]] |
| 391 | %% The Catalyst's reasoning does not count as an example of this trope, as there actually is a sense of logic (however unconventional) behind it, rather than the demented not-logic that defines this trope. This makes it more applicable to the Blue And Orange Morality trope. |
| 392 | * InsistentTerminology: |
| 393 | ** During the Grissom Academy evacuation, a female student insists on her name being pronounced as Oct-AH-via, not Oct-A-via. |
| 394 | ** Talking to a heavily intoxicated Tali in the ''Normandy's'' lounge after the Horizon mission gives us this gem: |
| 395 | --->'''Shepard:''' How are you getting drunk?\ |
| 396 | '''Tali:''' Very carefully. Turian brandy, triple-filtered, then introduced into the suit via an emergency induction port.\ |
| 397 | '''Shepard:''' ...That's a straw, Tali.\ |
| 398 | '''Tali:''' (''slurring her words'') ''Emerrrgency... induction... port.'' |
| 399 | * InstantWinCondition: This is what everyone hopes the Crucible will provide. On a mission level, the big fight in Priority: Tuchanka ends the moment the maw hammers have been triggered, even if you have a ridiculous number of Brutes within inches of pulling your head off and stomping on it. |
| 400 | * InterruptedSuicide: |
| 401 | ** Subverted in the case of [[spoiler: Tali, if you let the geth destroy the entire Migrant Fleet on Rannoch]]. Despite the Paragon interrupt appearing right before the suicide, pressing the button changes nothing. |
| 402 | ** A Paragon interrupt allows Shepard to stop [[spoiler:Samara]] from killing herself in order to [[spoiler:protect her surviving daughter and uphold the Justicar Code]]. |
| 403 | * InterspeciesRomance: With the entire galaxy falling apart because of the war, this becomes more apparent then ever among Shepard, the crew, and background characters. |
| 404 | * IronicEcho: |
| 405 | ** "It had to be me. Somebody else might have gotten it wrong." [[spoiler:This line is used whether you're going the paragon or renegade path, and depending on which you choose, is repeated in one of three *very* different ways.]] |
| 406 | ** "Wrex.""Shepard." Should Wrex survive in the first ''Mass Effect'', this casual exchange from the same entry takes a dark and tragic turn if [[spoiler: you allow the Genophage cure to be sabotaged. He'll eventually learn the truth from an undisclosed source and confront you for it.]] |
| 407 | * ItHasBeenAnHonor: Before you set out on the final battle you get a chance to talk and interact with all the crew members possible. At least half of the conversations end up using some variation of the phrase. |
| 408 | * ItMakesSenseInContext: Wrex: "[[spoiler:Shepard has a clone.]] Makes sense when you think about it." |
| 409 | * ItsAllAboutMe: |
| 410 | ** [[spoiler:The ''entire Reaper backstory'' boils down to one of these. The Leviathans considered themselves the apex species of the galaxy, receiving tribute from all lesser species, but they noticed some species would invent synthetic life that then killed their creators. They essentially created the Catalyst (who created the Reapers) in order to keep organic species alive so they could keep receiving tributes from them.]] |
| 411 | ** This is also the case for [[spoiler:the Asari government, hoarding the information from a Prothean beacon in order to maintain the Asari's position as the most advanced race in the galaxy. After Thessia, when Liara is shouting at Javik, he challenges her on exactly this point - whether she is upset that they would do it at all, or that they didn't include her.]] |
| 412 | * ItsPersonal: |
| 413 | ** The game makes sure to make it personal by having the Reapers start their invasion on Earth. |
| 414 | ** Kai Leng's attacks on Shepard's allies, especially [[spoiler:Thane and Miranda]] who can be killed by him personally. If so, Shepard will deliver a AndThisIsFor towards the end. |
| 415 | ** In the ''Citadel'', Shepard is upset that [[spoiler:their evil clone is taking things off their cabin. Shepard is especially angry about the Space Hamster]]. |
| 416 | * ItsPopularNowItSucks: In-universe, Joker kids about this concerning Cerberus [[spoiler: after the botched coup]], saying how he was all for them when they were vigilantes helping the helpless, but now they're a "bit too mainstream...and evil." |
| 417 | * ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure: Victory initiates a "neutron bombardment" as part of the GodzillaThreshold to wipe the Prothean husks off what would later be named Eden Prime. |
| 418 | [[/folder]] |
| 419 | |
| 420 | [[folder:J]] |
| 421 | * JerkassHasAPoint: |
| 422 | ** [[spoiler: The Illusive Man]] and, as it turns out, [[spoiler: Saren]] had one in the first game. Throughout the game Shepard, Hackett and Anderson constantly dismiss the idea of [[spoiler: controlling the Reapers]] and insist on [[spoiler: destroying them]]. When you get to the final choice of the game the suggestions they had[[note]] to either control the Reapers or to merge all organic and synthetic life respectively[[/note]] turn out to be possible options, actually requiring more Effective Military Strength to get than [[spoiler:destruction]]. |
| 423 | ** [[spoiler: The Catalyst's argument that organics and synthetics will inevitably come into contact and try to exterminate each other seems pretty much inevitable given what happened with the geth (especially if Shepard failed to [[TakeAThirdOption broker peace between them and the quarians]]), the unnamed synthetics in the Citadel DLC, and the Metacon Wars according to Javik. Whether its solution is an effective one, grinding up everyone to make into Reapers, is hotly contested, but his motivations aren't based on a deranged fantasy as much as we'd like it to be. It can come off as kind of ludicrous if the Geth-Quarian conflict ended with a peace treaty and they both joined you, though, especially since the fear of 'inevitable' robot rebellions turns out to have been [[SelfFulfillingProphecy the entire cause of the war]]]]. |
| 424 | * JokeCharacter: Volus characters [[DownplayedTrope toe this line]] in multiplayer. Much humor is derived from their short stature and generally spherical body shape. They stand on a crate for extra height in multiplayer lobbies, and only the top part of their head is visible on the Powers screen. In-game, seeing them sprinting and combat rolling like other characters is very amusing, and if they are downed on a ramp they tend to roll down it like a beach ball. Their maximum health is absolutely pathetic, and they get no special bonuses to their max shields or Fitness passive to complensate like other low-durability races do. On top of that, they can't take cover or climb over low obstacles, which cuts them off from certain routes, and some firing lanes are unusable to them because they can't see over the short walls. Lastly, their power kits aren't tuned towards dealing damage, being more focused on defense and disrupting the enemy. However, they can still equip any weapon in the game, their running speed is perfectly acceptable, they can do combat rolls to dodge, if slowly, (which is more than some characters can say), and their kits some offer unique tricks that no other characters can pull off. |
| 425 | * JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: In this case, [[spoiler: the center of the geth hive mind]]. |
| 426 | * TheJuggernaut: A Sentinel Shepard with the right bonus powers can achieve a *permanent 95% damage reduction* at the cost of having horrendously long cooldowns on their powers. Thankfully, with that kind of defense, you don't really need powers so much, as you can load a full set of the biggest, heaviest weapons and just rip through anything in your path. |
| 427 | * JumpScare: A certain husk in [[spoiler: Sanctuary]]. |
| 428 | [[/folder]] |
| 429 | |
| 430 | [[folder:K]] |
| 431 | * KickTheDog: |
| 432 | ** Just to make it one hundred percent clear who the bad guys are, a Mini-Reaper is shown shooting down unarmed civilian transports, one of which had a little boy on it. |
| 433 | ** The Illusive Man presents himself as NecessarilyEvil but still has a few moments of utterly needless cruelty. During the Mars mission, he [[spoiler: orders Eva to "finish"/"dispose of" the Virmire Survivor]]. During the endgame, he shows off his new power by [[spoiler: forcing Shepard to '''shoot Anderson'''.]] |
| 434 | * KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: Fallen allies in multiplayer can be revived, unless trooper-class enemies or Atlases stomp and execute them. Until recently, though, the enemies would avert the trope on Gold or Platinum, forcing players to sit and wait until the revive meter runs out or RageQuit and lose any experience for that mission. |
| 435 | * KillAllHumans: [[AndIMustScream ...or enslave them]], or {{mind rape}} them, [[FateWorseThanDeath or turn them into piles of gray goo]], if the Reapers have their way. |
| 436 | * KilledMidSentence: On Mars, an e-mail that was being typed right before the sender was killed, she types along complaining about someone then immediately switches to all-caps raising the alarm about the mess hall being vented... but doesn't finish in time. Presumably, the author was narrating to a VI who wrote it down. |
| 437 | * KilledOffForReal: AnyoneCanDie means ''anyone.'' Many characters including former squadmates can be killed over the course of the game depending on choices Shepard makes, or even choices made in the previous games. Unavoidable deaths (provided they survive to, and appear, in this game) include [[spoiler: Legion, Morinth, Thane Krios, Donnel Udina, the Illusive Man and David Anderson. If War Asset levels are not high enough ''everybody'' dies in the ending. Shepard dies in most endings, with ''one'' potential survival if certain conditions are met.]] |
| 438 | * KillItWithFire: Vorcha characters and geth soldiers in multiplayer get hand-mounted flamers. A number of other classes have the Incinerate power; throwing balls of fire. Soldiers and vanguards in Single Player can load their weapons with incendiary ammo as well. Ash also packs Inferno Grenades, and so can Shepard if that bonus power is unlocked and chosen. |
| 439 | ** AnIcePerson: Cryo powers are quite common, including Cryo Ammo, Cryo Blast, and Snap Freeze. In single-player, only the Adept lacks any form of ice-based power, and Kaidan uses Cryo Blast. |
| 440 | * KillingYourAlternateSelf: The Citadel DLC has you fighting an identity thief and preventing them from stealing your life. It turns out that they are a [[spoiler: clone created by Cerberus to serve as spare parts for you in the second game]], and no matter which ending you choose [[spoiler: the clone dies, either at your hands or their own, to show their utter rejection of you.]] |
| 441 | [[/folder]] |
| 442 | |
| 443 | ---- |
| 444 |
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