History NightmareFuel / MassEffect

* Kicking off the beginning of the Reapers' invasion after ''Mass Effect 2: Arrival'', ''Mass Effect: Invasion'' introduces us to a whole new type of Husk called Adjutants. These creatures were created by Cerberus in an effort to better understand Reaper technology and use it against them. Unfortunately, the Adjutants escape, hijack some ships and raid the Omega space station. With every kill, they assimilate the corpses which, in their own horrific way, rapidly change with newly grown wires, converted flesh and reassembled bone structures into other Adjutants, no matter the species. Spreading like a plague mixed with wildfire, the crime boss Aria has to deal with the Adjutants before they take over the entire station and possibly escape beyond the star system. [To make it worse, it's confirmed TIM intentionally released the Adjutants just so he could take control of Omega.

* Hilo'Jaa vas Idenna being described after he was interrogated by Pel in ''Mass Effect: Ascension''. He was beaten, cut, burned with acid, [[TheToothHurts had his teeth pulled out]], [[EyeScream had his eyelids ripped off and one eye was swollen]], [[{{Fingore}} fingers broken ]], and had contracted an alien disease that caused some [[BodyHorror growth to come out of his wounds]]. And he was [[AndIMustScream still alive]] when Grayson found him.

* From [[http://blog.bioware.com/2012/04/20/concerned-batarians-explain-that-medigel-works-on-them-too-alliance-news-network/ The Alliance News Network]]: While the stuff about even the ''Geth'' getting in on the fun, kicking the Batarians when they're down is somewhat ''hilarious''... there's a little titbit from before that which is truly horrifying and depressing: Apparently, most Alliance soldiers][[WeAreStrugglingTogether don't even bother to shout warnings]] to [[FantasticRacism Batarian soldiers]] when they've noticed there is a freaking ''Banshee'' behind them.

[[caption-width-right:231:That thing's body? [[spoiler:[[HumanResources You're the construction materials]].]]]]

* Kicking off the beginning of the Reapers' invasion after ''Mass Effect 2: Arrival'', ''Mass Effect: Invasion'' introduces us to a whole new type of Husk called Adjutants. These creatures were created by Cerberus in an effort to better understand Reaper technology and use it against them. Unfortunately, the Adjutants escape, hijack some ships and raid the Omega space station. With every kill, they assimilate the corpses which, in their own horrific way, rapidly change with newly grown wires, converted flesh and reassembled bone structures into other Adjutants, no matter the species. Spreading like a plague mixed with wildfire, the crime boss Aria has to deal with the Adjutants before they take over the entire station and possibly escape beyond the star system. [[spoiler: To make it worse, it's confirmed TIM intentionally released the Adjutants just so he could take control of Omega]].
* From [[http://blog.bioware.com/2012/04/20/concerned-batarians-explain-that-medigel-works-on-them-too-alliance-news-network/ The Alliance News Network]]: While the stuff about even the ''Geth'' getting in on the fun, kicking the Batarians when they're down is somewhat ''hilarious''... there's a little titbit from before that which is truly horrifying and depressing: Apparently, most [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Alliance soldiers]] [[WeAreStrugglingTogether don't even bother to shout warnings]] [[FantasticRacism to Batarian soldiers]] when they've noticed there is a freaking ''Banshee'' behind them.

[[folder:Mass Effect 3]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maxresdefault_492.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"[[HellIsThatNoise Why make them yell?! That's totally uncalled for!]]"]]
* The [[EldritchAbomination Reaper]] invasion is happening in full force.
* Rachni husks. In the game, most enemies have weak points you can strike for an easy kill, and these things are no exception. The twist? Attack that and it unleashes a swarm of mini-rachni that crawl all over your body.
* Wondering how you make a krogan husk even more terrifying? Give it a turian head. Brutes are [[HybridMonster Reaper-engineered hybrids of turians and krogans.]] Leaving aside the fact that we're talking about a cross between a race of SpaceRomans and [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Guys]]. Leaving aside the fact that their appearance is just [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120104202658/masseffect/images/9/90/ME3_Brute.png hideously monstrous.]] The most bowel-clenchingly scary part of them is that krogans and turians are incompatible on a protein-level. They can't even eat the same food let alone reproduce. Try to imagine the levels of BodyHorror the Reapers had to inflict upon turians and krogans to produce such an abomination. Knowing how the Reapers do business, they were probably alive and screaming when it happened, just like [[spoiler:the colonists on the collector base.]] And then realize that because they're so incompatible, their own bodily fluids are likely killing them. Even if they survive this battle, they won't live to see another day. THAT is what lesser beings are to the Reapers. That is what you are. You are not a living being, you are a thing. You are something to be used. If you are lucky, if they think you're good enough, you will be dissolved and used to make more of the beings that murdered you. If you are found wanting, they will change you until they can make use of you. They will break all the laws of nature until you no longer exist as you once were, until your every cell is being killed by the act of being alive. And when you are of no use for you, you will die.
* Banshees: Ardat-Yakshi asari husks. The "Ruthless enemies" trailer shows them using '''Charge'''...before ''impaling Shepard'' on their hands. According to one article, at least one variant of the asari husk is ''pregnant''. And they're able to use their AY powers to override your nervous system for a OneHitKill. And why not? The Reapers could easily do it ''[[ForTheEvulz for fun]]''. They are, put simply, ''the'' hardest enemies in the franchise, and they announce their presence on the battlefield with a [[HellIsThatNoise spine-chilling scream]] that's explicitly noted to be potent Nightmare Fuel in-universe.
** The worst part about the banshees is the mission they're introduced in. You arrive at a desolate asari monastery in the wake of a missing squad of asari commands, only to find...[[NothingIsScarier Nothing]]...No visible enemies, complete darkness for a time, and the wails of the banshees in the background.
** They're the Reaper's Ultimate Troopers in Multiplayer, alongside Cerberus' Atlus Mechs and the Geth Primes, and they retain everything that makes them terrifying, right up to their one-hit kill. Many bowels have been voided when players tried to take advantage of the Firebase Reactor stage's incinerator, luring the Banshees inside and hitting the button, '''only for the banshee to warp right through the door'''.
* During the E3 demo of the invasion of Earth, Shepard and Anderson are on top of an apartment building watching the reapers destroy the city. As they move they come across a large hole blasted through the roof, two husks crawl out to rush them. Shepard and Anderson shoot them down, and jump into the apartment inside. Shepard opens a jammed door for Anderson, only to look back to a duct on the wall and notice a kid inside. He offers to take the kid to safety, but the kid refuses, knowing he was going to die. What would make a kid lose the hope to live? Then it [[FridgeHorror hits you]]: those two husks were his PARENTS!
* The knowledge that if you do not make all the right choices, ignore all the sidequest and pretty much just blaze through the game without a thought for the possible consequences, the Reapers will defeat you in war and continue the cycle of extinction for possibly another several million years. What makes this even WORSE is that you'll essentially be the one responsible for the Prothean's sacrifice being in vain, likely doom the galaxy to never having another chance like this again AND cause your entire species to be the next Reaper of this generation. The whole scenario is pretty much [[NiceJobBreakingItHero you completely screwing over the entire galaxy]].
* [[FanNickname Big Ben]] experiences one at the end of the first trailer. The look on his face is one of sheer terror as the Reaper slowly descends upon his position in the clocktower. ThisIsGonnaSuck doesn't even begin to describe it.
* From [[AllThereInTheManual The Art Book of]] [[WordOfGod the Mass Effect Universe]], we see [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120226045261/masseffect/images/a/a8/Tim1.png concept art]] of the Illusive Man as a [[AndIMustScream Reaperized monstrosity]] intended for the final battle. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This was eventually cut]] in favour of a battle with someone players were familiar with but the art work is the stuff of nightmares. [[spoiler: If that wasn't bad enough, other concept art suggests TIM goes through some major deterioration in the final game, becoming more husk-like and resorting to a life support machine of some kind just to keep his mind functioning.]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUD0M0S6zjY The new CG trailer for Mass Effect 3]] starts off with a child playing with her Alliance fighter in a sunflower field. The camera plays around between her and some actual fighters flying over a city. All seems peaceful and cheerful when suddenly the fighters are shot down, the music is mute and Reapers descend on the cities with lasers. There is no warning of their coming, they don't announce themselves and expect surrender, [[CombatPragmatist they straight up destroy everything the moment they're within range]]. The child's look of horror upon seeing a Reaper up close doesn't help either.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBktyyaV9LY&feature=g-u-u&context=G24bdcd3FUAAAAAAAAAA The extended cut]] shows even greater chaos, along with some recycled clips from the original Big Ben teaser trailer from a different perspective. The icing on the cake is the horrifying fast forward clip showing the process of [[AndIMustScream huskification]] on a mutilated corpse while [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice hanging from a spike]].
* Batarian Husks are called "Cannibals". Why? They regain health by eating fallen enemies and husks. They also have an arm cannon which is made out of a human husk. Nice.
* And the best part? All this chaos and destruction has ''[[ViciousCycle happened before]]''. Hundreds, perhaps ''thousands'' of times before. It was one thing hearing about what happened to the Protheans in [=ME1=], and getting glimpses of the horrors they went through. But seeing history repeat itself in person, in full detail to your ''own'' people...
* That moment when you see the first Reaper descend from the clouds. [[OhCrap The defense committee members' reactions say it all.]]
* Listening to the Cerberus grunts as you mow your way through them, either as Shepard or the Multiplayer teams. At first they're calm and professional, but they get progressively more panicked as you kill their buddies.
-->'''Assault Trooper:''' '''''[[MookHorrorShow TAKING CASUALTIES!!]]'''''
** In Multiplayer, the [[MookLieutenant Centurions,]] if the rest of the wave is cut down, will start screaming this in a panic as you close in on him:
-->'''Centurion:''' '''''[[DyingAlone SQUAD! RESPOND!]]'''''
* From the demo to the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG2mdZ23eP8&feature=g-all&context=G256392aFAAAAAAAABAA launch trailer]], we're assaulted by the souless mechanical screams and groans of the Reapers. Every time they rocket through the air, fear and dread are not far behind.
* No matter how scary it gets, you always have the comfort of knowing that there's a screen and a game between you and the Reapers. Now imagine this: You live on the Citadel, and one day you check your omni-tool to see Emily Wong reporting live from Earth, talking about a ship like the one that attacked the Citadel being on Earth. You follow the story as it unfolds with mounting horror as Emily encounters husks and Cannibals, frantically tries to warn people away from certain escape routes, and eventually is directly attacked. You receive the signal loss instantaneously, and with it goes your hope of hearing about the situation - maybe the people in charge will still know about what's going on back home, but you won't. All you can do is imagine and wonder what will happen when the Reapers get to you.
* You press the scan button once...and the edge of the system fills with red arrows and the detection bar fills about 4/5th of the way full. It's a very VERY effective way to make you know that you are being hunted. As the game progresses, the galaxy map fills up with new star clusters to explore....and just about every one of them has a Reaper marker on it. Perfectly sums up just how badly things are going for the entire galaxy. And then, as the game gets further along... clusters you CAN'T visit have Reaper markers on them. And just before the final mission... every single cluster that has a mass relay, that you can pass through, that you can visit and can't visit, has a Reaper marker over it. '''The Reapers HAVE THE GALAXY'''. Doubles as FridgeHorror when you realize that, just before Priority: Earth, [[spoiler:'''[[InferredHolocaust you can't access any other system.]]''']]
* It's discovered in "From Ashes" that the Protheans were a ProudWarriorRace of SpaceRomans...with some of the most powerful [[TheEmpath empathic abilities]] in fiction, and with their RealLife counterparts' tendency to obliterate the culture of the races they conquered, until they called themselves "Prothean" too. Just imagine what it was like facing an invasion fleet of theirs, knowing they can figure out your entire race's history simply by ''touching'' a member of it, and that if-when-they win, everything about who you were, as a people, will be torn apart and fed to the ever-expanding empire. And the thing is-it's either them, or [[RobotWar their enemies]].
** Even better-you know those Prothean outposts on Mars? Javik reveals that yes, they ''did'' uplift promising species...''as servants''. In case you haven't noticed, humanity has a [[Series/TheTwilightZone1985 small talent for war]], so ask yourself-[[FridgeHorror what would happen if the Protheans survived to see our capabilities as warriors...?]]
** Javik's own backstory has its own horrors. He commanded a ship much like the Normandy, until it was captured by the Reapers and its crew indoctrinated and sent after him. Imagine for a moment in [=ME2=] that you and your group ''weren't'' conveniently away from the Normandy when the Collectors invaded, and that all hands besides Shepard were taken by the Reapers. Then imagine that you tried to storm the Collector Base on your own, only to be faced with the indoctrinated forms of Garrus, Tali, and the other squadmates (love interests included), and forced to MercyKill every single one as they come after you. ''[[IronWoobie That]]'' [[IronWoobie is what Javik had to deal with.]] If you have him touch the Echo Shard he carried with him, ''that'' is what he is forced to relive as he touches that artifact. [[spoiler:And ''that'' is why he eventually will decide to kill himself if you let him do that]].
** How about this? [[spoiler:If you fail to rescue Grissom academy, much later, while you're storming Cerberus headquarters you will find this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPJj8efNskM. Yeah, it's not your entire team. But if she's your love interest, you'll have to MercyKill the one you love, indoctrinated and not even recognising you.]]
** That recording is just terrifying. To think if that had to happen to everybody who was [[spoiler: converted into a Cerberus Phantom. By the way Jack screamed whatever they did to her was not gentle nor was it painless. Likely an accelerated indoctrination process to make her loyal and quick n' dirty surgery with control chips, implants, and whatever other horrors they can cook up]].
* In universe example: Shepard has nightmares of the little boy s\he saw killed while trying to flee Earth. There are dream sequences where Shepard finds the boy in a forest, before he burns alive to his\her horrified face.
** Doesn't help when later in the game [[NothingIsScarier you hear voices and see shadowy outlines of former allies. Especially when the dream shows only one bench among windy weather, shaking trees, and the ghostly laugh of said child.]] If you want an idea of how chilling this particular sequence is, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4pqgBw_exw&list=FLdUCk5-dxXiV306c3y2LAQA&index=1&feature=plpp_video listen here]]. Combine that with the unnerving music, and you'll be having nightmares of your own.
* After [[spoiler:the attempted Cerberus coup]] on the Citadel, Shepard can listen in on a traumatized asari huntress in Huerta Memorial Hospital. She's twitchy and paranoid, asking what color her eyes are and begging to be kept away from humans, refusing to bathe and repeatedly pleading for a gun. By listening to a counselor's attempts to talk her through what happened, you learn why: [[spoiler:she was on a colony world, staying overnight in a farming community to wait for a shuttle and the rest of her squad. A hero-worshipping fourteen-year-old farmgirl offered her the use of their shower - and when she came out of the shower, still only wearing a towel, the farm was attacked by an Ardat-Yakshi friend of hers who'd been husked into a Banshee. With farmers dying and no way for her to get to her gun, the huntress grabbed the farmgirl and fled into the countryside, where they stayed on the run for several days until she realized that the shuttle wasn't coming back and they had to go back to the farm to radio for help. When they did, they found many of the farmers still alive - and when Hilary, the farmgirl, freed them, they attacked under the influence of indoctrination. The huntress was forced to kill most of them with her biotics, and fled again, taking cover in a barn, but Hilary's leg was broken and she couldn't stop crying. The huntress killed her to keep the noise from leading the Banshee to the both of them, and held out alone until a rescue shuttle finally arrived. The asari government wants to give her a medal for the intel she was able to provide, but she can only miserably blame herself for the deaths of the farmers]].
** Eventually, a message pops up in the Spectre terminal regarding an asari huntress's requests to obtain a gun. Authorize it, and [[spoiler:she commits suicide, leaving the hospital staff who were trying to help her demoralized]].
** It actually gets even worse. The farmgirl that she killed, the one called Hilary? [[spoiler: It's Joker's sister]].
* Glyph reveals that one colony dealt with an impending Reaper invasion by taking a third option rather than surrendering or fighting a futile ground war: they detonate thermonuclear weapons in all their population centers, sparing themselves [[MindRape indoctrination]] and denying the Reapers a source of cannon fodder.
** [[ItOnlyWorksOnce Unfortunately the Reapers learned from this,]] and started specifically targeting nuclear missile silos prior to invasion to avoid a repeat. Even ''nuclear holocaust'' only slows them down at best.
* The sheer lengths Han'Gerrel is willing to go to fuel his vendetta against the geth. [[spoiler:It ultimately culminates in him ''sending his entire race to their doom'' unless you either side with the quarians or made ''very'' specific choices in ''2'' and the build up to the final choice concerning Rannoch in ''3''.]]
* [[spoiler:Legion's [[FreakOut psychotic breakdown]]]] if you [[spoiler:side with the quarians]].
* [[spoiler: The rachni queen using a dozen or so dead krogan]] to talk through. Seeing their heads bob and move in unison is unnerving.
** Worse is if you're dealing with [[spoiler: the cloned Breeder, had you killed the original Queen]]. It just sounds...''off''. [[spoiler: The fact that she doesn't use the RoyalWe like her original counterpart is a definite clue that ''something is very wrong''.]] And if you elect to leave it behind, [[spoiler: it goes ''ballistic''. Having a dozen dead krogan screaming "'''KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!'''" is mighty unnerving. If Shepard spares the breeder in hopes that she will cooperate with the alliance to fight the Reapers, you will later be informed that as soon as the rachni reached the construction site of the Crucible, they betrayed the humans in revenge for killing their first queen by massacring every scientist they could get their hands on, completely wiping out the entire Alliance Engineering Corps.]]
* Combines with TearJerker. Shepard, the galaxy's ultimate hero\badass, slowly breaks until s\he is a broken wo\man, possibly bleeding to death, and left with deciding the fate of the galaxy.
* Pretty much [[spoiler: [[BittersweetEnding every ending]] [[DownerEnding when thought about-]]]]
** [[spoiler: Control Ending: Shepard makes a HeroicSacrifice but is now (supposedly) in control of the Reapers, but considering the [[BlueAndOrangeMorality odd]] [[InsaneTrollLogic logic]] of the Catalyst, there is nothing to say that this won't happen to Shepard's control over time.]]
** [[spoiler: Destroy Ending: All synthetic life is destroyed, so all the geth are destroyed meaning at best, the quarians have no help to rebuild their homeworld, at worst you let the quarians die for nothing. There is also the possibility that future races will inevitably create synthetics themselves, and thus the [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters whole situation will repeat itself again.]] This is also the only ending where Shepard is hinted at surviving, but if [[WildMassGuessing popular]] [[EpilepticTrees fan theory]] is adhered to, this means that the entire ending is a hallucination of Shepard's, who has now fought off indoctrination attempts... and is lying in ruins, bleeding to death after Harbinger's attack, still no closer to the Citadel beam.]]
** [[spoiler: Or even worse, Destroy ending with low EMS. Congratulations on setting off a galaxy-wide extinction event of all life, organic or synthetic, possibly even life on undeveloped worlds uninvolved in the war. Hackett survives and narrates the aftermath concerning their pyrrhic victory, and he doesn't sound too hopeful about the future of the handful of survivors.]]
** [[spoiler: Synthesis: Another HeroicSacrifice is made, leading to all organic and synthetic life are fused to make a [[ArtisticLicenseBiology new DNA]], inferred to occur with Reaper tech, essentially meaning [[FromACertainPointOfView they have won.]] Additionally there is the problem that this choice is forced upon the galaxy by Shepard, [[NotSoDifferent similar to the goals of the Catalyst/Reapers.]]]]
** [[spoiler:Even worse, if you look at the husk in the Extended Cut, you'll see that there is now some humanity in the automaton. Now imagine if that happened to a fused husk, like a Cannibal, a Brute, a Scion, or a Praetorian. While it may have been inadvertent, Bioware has managed to create a horror story on the level of Film/TheHumanCentipede.]]
** [[spoiler: All Endings: If the Crucible wasn't built correctly, i.e. without enough War Assets, it will not work at all (ergo Reapers will eventually win and cycles continue) or will destroy ALL organic and synthetic life in the galaxy. If it does work, no matter what, the Relays are destroyed. Finally there is the notion of the Normandy outrunning the Crucible's energy blast and crash landing on a remote, which implies they fled Earth and hit the Relay ''WHILST'' Shepard was on the Citadel making their decision. Your TrueCompanions? They left you to die. As others have aptly put it, ''Goddamnit, Bioware''. Thankfully revised in the Extended Cut, in which Admiral Hackett orders a mass retreat before the Crucible goes off, and while both Joker and your favourite teammate clearly don't ''want'' to leave you behind, they're well aware that Shepard wouldn't want to sacrifice the entire ship.]]
* Shepard in VideoGame/MassEffect3 and some of the moments here [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1CV86SnSPM just shows]] how Renegade Shepard isn't just ruthless to enemies anymore and more than willing to kill comrades if they step out of line. it leaves you knowing the fate of the galaxy lies within a completely ruthless anti-hero.
** You could even argue that some of those moments don't even fit the pragmatic definition of Renegade; [[MoralEventHorizon they're simply evil]], and in some cases, [[StupidEvil they even cause]] ''[[StupidEvil direct harm]]'' [[StupidEvil to Shepard's ability to fight the Reapers.]] [[spoiler: Then you take in [[WildMassGuessing the possibility that Shepard has been indoctrinated]]. Perhaps Renegade Shepard is succumbing to it even ''before'' the ending?]]
** Even worse, the the most heinous KickTheDog moments can only occur if Shepard mostly made paragon choices in the previous two games. S/he just... snapped.
* [[spoiler: [[RoboticReveal Robot]] ]] Eva Core [[spoiler: grabbing Kaiden or Ashley, then [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally and repeatedly smashing their skull against a shuttle doorframe.]] They get better, but it's still pretty disturbing to watch since combat's usually a fairly tame futuristic gun battle.]]
** Oh, and [[spoiler: the Virmire Survivor then gets to team up with Eva's body controlled by EDI, who has a history of violent behavior that the Survivor may know about. No wonder Ash was twitchy... Meanwhile, Kaidan's self-control is probably the only reason Shepard didn't have to delay the ''Normandy's'' departure to fix an EDI shaped hole in the hull.]]
* "Goodbye Thane. You won't be alone long." What's more disturbing, the number who will die against the Reapers or the implication; given everything s\he has gone through, that Shepard is a DeathSeeker?
* Commander Shepard is practically the embodiment of this to the Reapers. You look down on the battlefield and see a single human charging at them, ''on foot''. S/he clearly has no chance, no hope of defeating you, why does s/he persist? You line up your main cannon and s/he simply dodges the beam. Why does s/he fight the inevita- What is s/he picking up? Is that a-? Within seconds, you are broken and crashing to the ground. Then you realise that you forgot the most important thing of all, the reason why Shepard has killed so many of your brethren. S/he has no ''fear''. Until the last Reaper is dead, you will be hunted across the stars. Shepard will NEVER. ''[[{{Determinator}} EVER]]''. [[ImplacableMan STOP!]]
** Why else would the Reapers point their dreadnought-destroy guns at a single (wo)man? And even that doesn't stop him/her completely.
** The Leviathan, one of the creators of the being that created the Reapers, even outright states that Shepard is the only being in history that the Reapers have ever truly feared.
* The [=iOS=] app brings us this rather chilling message considering the context. The fact that it's on YOUR phone/computer, not Shepard's, makes it so much scarier.
-->[[spoiler: Wrex]]: I know what you did.
** [[spoiler: The sheer unadulterated remorselessness of Shepard when you pick the Renegade option. S/he's not trying to justify it. S/he's ''lying'' to one of his best friends' face on why s/he screwed the Krogan, betrayed Wrex personally, and shot Mordin in the back to do so.]]
* Illusive Man's [[spoiler: transformation at the end of the game is a bit disturbing. For starters, he has gone completely crazy, is under the control of the Reapers and has '''black veins on his neck'''....]]
* The Sanctuary! [[spoiler:Take a Nazi death camp and mask it as a refugee centers for people to voluntarily sign in to escape horrors of the war, and you have some idea of what the place is like. People by the thousands, if not millions get subjected to deadly experiments and turned into Husks just so that Cerberus can brute force the secrets of the Reaper Indoctrination from them. And what's worse, a great portion of the staff are just as blissfully unaware of the true nature of the place as the refugees, and believe that they'll be allowed into the facility proper once they've fulfilled their quota]]. Worse, that place was a very extensive base on Horizon, and likely wasn't built in the previous few months. Most likely, it was at least still being built the last time Shepard was sent to Horizon.
** [[FromBadToWorse It gets even worse]]. Consider the post-mission summary of the Reaper IFF mission. [[spoiler:Cerberus wasn't just planning Sanctuary during the second game. They used Shepard to make it possible.]]
-->Reaper IFF successfully retrieved. Loss of Cerberus team on the Reaper vessel unfortunate but unsurprising. Will use team's health records for comparisons against husks encountered on Reaper for '''possible insight into indoctrination and husk conversion process'''.
* The very last level of the game, when Shepard goes through the Reaper transport beam to [[spoiler: The Citadel]]. The room Shepard arrives in is filled with piles of bloody human corpses. Not to mention the implication of what may have happened there after [[spoiler: The Reapers seized the Citadel and moved it to Earth.]] And that they did so so quickly, you never even got a message about the attack until everything was done.[[spoiler: Made worse by the keeper present, silently sorting through the bodies. As we know from the second game, the keepers have been known to take corpses on the Citadel and ''process'' them in the protein vats]].
** What makes that even worse is that the last time Shepard was at the Citadel, pretty much every character not directly involved in construction of the Crucible, on Shepard's crew, or back on Earth with Anderson was on the Citadel, thinking that it was safe. Commander Bailey, your buddy from C-Sec? The Councilors? Matriarch Atheyta, Liara's father? Conrad Verner and his newly discovered girlfriend Jenna? That cute little girl who was waiting for her parents to arrive? The entire staff at Huerta Memorial hospital (including either Dr. Michel or Dr. Chakwas, depending on who you recruited)? Kolyat Krios? Literally millions of refugees? All gone... dying horribly and turned into fodder for the Reapers by the keepers.
** Worse in the Extended Cut, which adds a small scene in which you actually see Shepard being flung into the room, accompanied by an unexplained and very creepy sound, after which Shepard wakes up startled. [[spoiler:One fanon theory has it that the sound is Shepard's cybernetics kicking in to jump start his/her heart, implying that Shepard ''died'' when s/he got to the beam and was being dumped in that room with the rest of the human corpses.]]
* Apart from all obvious terror that you witness in your missions, watching how the entire universe deteriorate into a CrapsackWorld due to the war is really chilling. Especially in the refugee camp that was set up at the dock holding area in the Citadel, with the sounds in the background consisting of children crying and the TV reporting news that more worlds are being overrun by the Reapers. The general sense of hopelessness is both a tearjerker and terrifying in that it is so real and so personal.
* The final part of London. [[spoiler:The Destroyer is dead, Hammer Task Force is massing, getting ready for the final push. ''And then Harbinger lands beyond the Conduit''.]]
* Take a look at Javik. Then take a look at the Collectors. [[spoiler: Since Collectors are Prothean, [[BodyHorror see how different they are]]. The Reapers removed their mouths and digestive systems, forced the growth of a chitinous tissue, and gave the eyes a strange, soulless glow. Who knows what else has been modified under the skin]].
* The final scene of ANY of the endings. [[spoiler: The Normandy has crash-landed on an unidentified garden world, implied to be on the other side of a mass relay from the Local Cluster. The mass relays have just been destroyed. This means that the crew of the Normandy are trapped. Rations are going to run out eventually. But wait, you say. It's a garden world, so they'll be ok. Right? And then you realise - the Normandy has both levo and dextro crew. The garden world can't be both. So either Tali and Garrus are going to starve to death - or EVERYONE ELSE will]].
** Jossed, thankfully. [[spoiler: Patrick Weekes and others have stated that the Normandy has dextro-amino food stores, so Garrus and Tali will be fine. And with the EC, there are two possibilities that will save them. Either you've obtained middling War Assets, and you can see the crew rebuilding the Normandy to escape...or you have high enough War Assets that the Normandy just takes off and leaves.]] Still, it was touch and go for a bit there.
* You hear that sound? That [[HellIsThatNoise GNRRRGGHRGHHGGRRRGHGHGHRRRGHRHGRHH]] the Reapers make? It's specifically tuned to induce a panic response in organics, and it can eventually result in indoctrination. That sound instills fear in YOU, the player. And the horn cannot be forgotten; it's like an EarWorm. So, whenever somebody brings up Reapers again, you hear that noise in your head. YOU'RE BEING INDOCTRINATED THROUGH A TV SCREEN.
--> "It's too late for me. They're still in my head, stealing my thoughts."
* [[spoiler: If you try to shoot the Cataylst, or tell it to screw itself; its voice will go from [[VoiceOfTheLegion disturbing]] to flat out scary as hell as it lets the cycle continue. And then you get a front-row seat while watching the Reapers kill EVERYONE...and it's '''''all your fault''''']].
* Something about the krogan with glowing green eyes in the Synthesis ending is just unsettling.
* [[spoiler:Shepard-Reaper]] in the updated Control ending is absolutely ''terrifying.''
** In the Renegade Control ending, there are two lines that are shiver-worthy when coming from [[spoiler:the current leader of the Reaper forces:]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Shepard-Reaper:''' [[HeWhoFightsMonsters I will lead an army that no one will dare oppose. I will destroy those who threaten the future of the many.]]]]
** The background music - which is creepy at best, sinister at the worst - and the tone [[spoiler: Shepard-Reaper]] uses throughout the whole thing DOES NOT HELP. Hearing the above lines coming from a flat monotone is beyond disturbing, especially since it implies [[spoiler:Shepard is losing him/herself to the Reapers and will soon be no different than the Catalyst.]] Thankfully, the Paragon version, while still kinda creepy, doesn't have the same horrifying tone and implications.
* Cerberus half-husking their own people, which you see on Mars. The N7: Cerberus Lab mission heavily implies that they're also indoctrinating them - someone named C. Talavi left a journal entry upon recruitment remarking that the Cerberus people seem so intense all the time, they ''never'' smile, the suicide-upon-capture orders are kind of extreme, and there's a procedure he's supposed to start tomorrow called "integration", which he sarcastically claims to be looking forward to. The second journal entry is devoid of all that personality. Integration a success. Cerberus is his friend. Suicide on capture orders acknowledged. What makes it worse? Later in the game there's background chatter where a private wants to fight husks and not Cerberus, because her brother joined the latter. Her last name? Talavi.
** The face of the [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/File:CerberusHusk.png Assault Trooper on Mars]] is pretty creepy: he looks like a ''husk.'' Some [[http://mk01.deviantart.com/art/Phantom-317753197 fanart]] shows what a Phantom might look like, and it is somehow even scarier.
* Grissom Academy has Cerberus forces trying to convince students to surrender. You come across a few of these students out in the open, protecting themselves with dome-shaped barriers or shields, with Cerberus troopers standing just outside them ''calling them by name'' and complimenting their skills in threatening tones.
** One of the most upsetting parts of that mission is right after speaking to Kahlee. You see two Cerberus troopers dragging a student down the hall screaming with only a glass window between you and them. ''And you can't help him''.
* A pretty minor example, but if Kaidan's alive and part of the crew, then after Sanctuary he has a few lines about wanting to go after and kill the Illusive Man. A lot of the crew says similar things, but the cold intensity and sort of ''joy'' in his voice is unsettling. BewareTheNiceOnes indeed.
--> "Can you feel it, Shepard? Feel the quickening? Illusive Man better say his prayers tonight, because we're coming for him. Murderous asshole. Oh yeah. Tide is turning. I can feel it."
--> "After what I saw down there... [[TranquilFury I've never been more filled with rage]]."
--> "Sanctuary... Illusive Man's obviously crazy, but bring him on. Cases like this - I don't mind killing crazy."
* Entering a battlefield and the first thing you see is someone getting gunned down or dragged away, and ''there's nothing you can do help.''
* Leviathan, the first new single-player DLC. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zabmFgYmGYU trailer]] has this line in the [[EvilSoundsDeep unsettlingly deep voice]] of a Reaper.
--> '''YOU HAVE COME TOO FAR.'''
* Leviathan, the character from the first single-player DLC. [[spoiler: It's of the species that created the Reapers, and it wants the Reapers to pay their tribute to it in blood. And Leviathan has '''[[OhCrap friends]].''' It isn't unlikely to think that [[SequelHook Leviathan and his buddies will come for US next...]]]]
* The Leviathan DLC has you visit a mining facility under attack from Reaper forces. The miners are bizarrely calm, and keep telling Shepard to turn back. You keep finding datapads detailing the weird topics they're studying, none of which seem to have anything to do with mining. There are a few consoles that give Vid Tours, and the last one says the company "focuses on" before glitching out and going to a camera watching Shepard. The whole thing is incredibly creepy. [[spoiler:Then you get to the end and discover Leviathan has been controlling the miners for 10 years.]]
** The incredibly unnerving [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAghfWDa0jU#t=04m18s exchange]] with the two receptionists. You can just feel the tone plummets into something ice-cold when the receptionist says [[spoiler: "And now... we're done. '''Step away. You don't belong here.'''" At which point any sane person realises something is very wrong, as everyone has turned into an EmptyShell and the creepiness factor goes UpToEleven.]]
** "You shouldn't be here."
** The Female Miner who has her back to you when Shepard first enters the facility. While everyone turns to look at you, the way in particular she slowly turns her head around is ''ridiculously'' creepy to watch.
** The WhamLine at the end of that mission when Shepard realises that [[spoiler: the Miners have ''never'' heard of the Reapers!]]
--> '''Shepard''': [[spoiler: What ''year'' do you think it is?!]]
** The miners are seemingly doing everything except actually mining, namely studying things that they should have no interest in. Among these is an 'experiment' on pain capacity that, by the sound of it, seems to just be torturing some poor bastard until he broke and was no longer 'usable'.
* That lab with a still-reacting severed head. James calls it a Husk head, but it looks more like the head of a Cerberus trooper, not having the weird texture or the techno-ballgag. It ''swivels to face you''. And bites. A NightmareFetishist Shepard can decide to take it home and just... keep it in his/her cabin. Where it will STARE at your Space Hamster...before screaming at it. Poor Boo.
** [[spoiler: Remember the Extended Cut of the Synthesis Ending, where the Husk appeared horrified and self-aware of their new state? Now imagine what happened in the Synthesis Ending to the poor bastard who's head that was...]]
* Leviathan in general is probably the closest to straight horror that the Mass Effect series has ever come: [[MindRape instant indoctrination]], [[CreepyMonotone chilling staff]] at an otherwise AbandonedMine, all the little details and experiments like the seemingly innocuous plant that is actually highly toxic, with no reason ever given for their existance, chase scenes through darkened corridors with nothing but red warning lights, [[EvilSoundsDeep the possessed's warnings]], [[NothingIsScarier the almost pitch black deep sea dive]], [[spoiler: [[AGodAmI an encounter with one of probably the FIRST advanced civalisation]], [[AbusivePrecursors who precedes to invade Shepard's mind]], before [[CurbStompBattle trouncing a Reaper with a mere thought]]]] and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero finally the implication that after all this is over]] [[spoiler: The Leviathans will return to obtain [[NoodleIncident "tribute"]] from the [[OhCrap lesser species]]]]. Oh, and the artifacts have been on the Citadel and around people for goodness knows how long...
** On the other hand, [[spoiler: Shepard brings a healthy dose of this to knock the Leviathan [[BreakTheHaughty down a peg]]. They are alarmed that Shepard had the tenacity and determination to not only track them down, but went ''alone'' to confront them, admitting they have ''[[WhatTheHellAreYou never]]'' seen anything like Shepard before. Like Harbinger, their first thought was to keep Shepard for study and turn them into [[TheDragon their Dragon]], but when Shepard defiantly refused, they immediately abandoned that plan, realising that when something the Reapers are ''[[TheDreaded afraid]]'' of tells you to let them go, ''[[DoNotTauntCthulhu do it!]]'']]
** In addition, [[spoiler: the Leviathans are now known to exist. So even in an ending where Shepard dies, the galaxy knows Leviathan is out there. They know how it operates. Combined with having faced indoctrination before, you realize that if anything, NOT completing Leviathan is worse because if you win without having done Leviathan, then they can wait in the shadows perfectly like the original Reapers. By finding them, you've revealed them to the galaxy and given warning which minimizes the blindsiding that would occur if Leviathan attempted anything. Some extra NightmareRetardant for those who need it.]]
** Completing the mission actually gives the players an option to warn the Reapers in the late-game. And [[spoiler:the Catalyst doesn't care. At all. This cycle will be their end as well. It makes no difference]].
* From Multiplayer, there is the N7 Fury. [[http://i48.tinypic.com/59wrqc.png The hood and the mask are creepy as hell]]. And then you realize she can use [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Annihilation Field]], which means that she has a [[BattleAura biotic "barrier"]] that hurts any hostile that gets within five feet of her. This is not someone you want to see bearing down on you.
** The Fury is by no means the only nightmarish playable MP character. Let's look at a [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters few examples out of the many]] from the perspective of some poor [[RedshirtArmy Assault Trooper:]]
*** Geth Juggernaut: You and your squadmates are moving towards the intended target, with the intent to destroy it at all costs. You come across the target... and it's a ten-foot-tall, hulking machine with a really big gun. Your first squadmate opens fire... and the machine hits him with a blue bolt of energy. Your companion ''dissolves screaming''' into a pool of... something. The next poor sap attempts to flank the geth, and is promptly incinerated by the small floating turret the geth deployed. Now you and your last buddy are shooting desperately, and the geth doesn't give a damn. It walks slowly over to your friend, and raises its omni-tool. Jets of blue energy lance out, and within seconds, the person who you'd been fighting alongside is nothin more than a puddle of blue lquid. Then you look down at your piddly little SMG, and realize that you are well and truly screwed.
*** Turian Havoc: Okay, it's just one turian. It may be difficult, but everything dies eventually, right? '''WRONG.''' The turian floats into the air with jet boosters, and barrels into your buddy, sending him flying out of sight. He jets off to the next one. And the next. Until finally, all that's left is you and him. But you decide to take a chance. You raise your Mattock rifle, and squeeze the trigger. The turian falls to one knee: you managed to land one on his ankle. Finally, something's going your way! But it's all for naught, as he pulls out a syringe gun, and jabs himself. The he gets back up on his feet. You turn to run, but you just hear his jets fire one final time, and before you can blink, he's on top of you, two omni blades going straight through your heart and brain.
*** N7 Slayer/Shadow: You're shooting at the target... and then s/he's not there. Where did s/he go? What happened? You hear a shriek from behind you, and you turn around just in time to see your comrade's head fly off. You start shooting , but the enemy disappears again and decapitates another Trooper. And there's nothing you can do but keep shooting, until you feel the cold steel of the enemy's blade against your throat.
*** N7 Destroyer: You're on route to a target with your squad, when out of nowhere a heat-seeking missile gibs one of your squad-mates. Your squad turns to see where it came from, revealing an Systems Alliance soldier in a T5-V Battlesuit, a miniature rocket launcher on his shoulder cycling to the next shot. You order your squad to open fire, two Concussive shots fire at the soldier. A few seconds before they hit, you hear "DEVASTATOR MODE ENGAGE!!!". They hit, some smoke obscures him. Before the smoke clears they return fire, mowing down the rest of your squad. The smoke clears, and the N7 soldier is glowing, slowly walking towards you, while reloading.
*** Krogan Battlemaster Vanguard: As soon as you deploy and secure the area, an angry krogan screaming murderous oaths and pumping a shotgun comes into view. You've faced these before, what could they do to a disciplined, experienced squad like yours? Then he melts into blue lightning and flattens your first squadmate, explodes the head of your second with his shotgun, then swings the shotgun with enough force for the omniblade attached to it to bisect your third squadmate, armor and all. Reinforcements show up and pelt him with enough rounds to put down TEN krogan, but he takes most of it with a ridiculously thick biotic barrier and shrugs off the rest on his massive armored form. As he caves in your skull, you realize that he'll never die, and no amount of training, skill and armor can halt the metric ton of enraged berzerker battering his way through Cerberus' best.
*** Volus Protector Vanguard: Rounding the corner, you see your objective. And it's guarded by… a volus? Are they really so desperate? You take aim, trying hard not to laugh, when the little runt disappears. What? Where did he- A weird noise sounds, and the guy covering your flank is sent rocketing into the wall, pasting it with blood. The volus is back, and now you have a clear shot. You aim, and open fire. But he just raises a shield, causing all bullets to richocet wildly. He drops the shield, and before you can pop the heat sink, he creates three tiny orbs in the palm of his hand, and sends them flying at you. You feel pain flood your body, and you drop your SMG as you collapse to the ground. You try to reach for it, but the volus slams a boot on your wrist, breaking the bones within to splinters. Looking up, you see the volus holding one more biotic orb at the ready.
* The Reapers are absolutely terrifying in this game. Every part of the game only further jams in the truth that this war is a completely HopelessWar. Right from out of the gate, they utterly steamroll over the batarians, wiping out a majority of their species in a few weeks. They cut through the majority of the human fleet and conquer the whole Sol system in a matter hours and just a portion of their fleet has the most powerful military in the galaxy, the turians, just barely holding out against them. When they conquer a system, they bring their leaders aboard as for "peace talks", indoctrinate them and turn them against their own people. And the husk versions in this game are nightmarish. Galactic citizens begin using the most desperate tactics imaginable from kamikaze attacks and destroying up their entire planets, hoping to take down as many as possible. [[CurbStompBattle The problem is that it's not nearly enough.]] [[GodzillaThreshold It's easy to see why all galactic civilization put their faith in a weapon that no one knows the capabilities of.]]
* [[spoiler: Our galaxy is one giant sandbox for a single programmed intelligence to experiment with, to find new ways to succeed in its ultimate goal, completely missing the point of its original intended directive by taking its objective too literally and too vaguely. Not only that, but it created artificial methods in which to speed up the process of what it was intended to avert in the first place all so it could arrive to the final stage in its experiment time and time again.]] This only drives the realization deeper into us that we were never in control of our fate from the word go. It truly makes you wonder how many before us actually realized this before they were harvested.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZqwuHFIgIA The Retaliation DLC Trailer]] has one giant pants-wetting moment, aside from [[spoiler: The '''FUCKING COLLECTORS ARE BACK!]]''', which is this- the team get ready to fight the Collectors- '''WHEN A REAPER DROPS BEHIND THEM.''' Not a small one, either- one about the size of... [[spoiler: '''[[FridgeHorror Harbinger?!]]''' controlling the Collectors again?!]]
* In Omega, we get the Adjutants, creatures scary enough to make Nyreen Kandros, a seasoned military and mercenary commander, have a HeroicBSOD. [[NothingIsScarier Not to mention the mines where you meet them.]] Nyreen recognizes the noise and remarks that the entire mine must have been locked down to contain it. No mention is made of other Adjutants, meaning Nyreen is convinced that an entire sector of Omega was locked down to just contain ''one.'' [[spoiler: Unfortunately, it wasn't. It was locked down to contain multiple Adjutants.]]
** Just to clarify how terrifying the Adjutants are, they're a form of Reaper organism that Cerberus have trying to cultivate with mixed successes. The only ones that serve them as intended are encountered during the final confrontation of the DLC with the rest being ferals that attack anything that comes close. They're horrifying meshes of flesh and metal, even ''moreso'' than some of their contemporaries, with hideous glowing blue sacks growing on their backs that contain their ''brains''. Yes, "brains" ''plural.'' Nothing anyone [[CutscenePowerToTheMax outside of]] [[GameplayAndStorySegregation gameplay]] does can stop them as they tear through Cerberus and Omega's citizens alike. And the worst part about their abilities? The part that has Nyreen terrified of even one? They're a living plague that can infect ''anyone'' and convert them into more Adjutants. [[spoiler: The only reason they don't in the game is because Cerberus has been experimenting on them to gain control over them, temporarily removing their ability to replicate through infection. Though knowing Cerberus, they'd absolutely return that ability once the Adjutants were fully under their control.]]
*** There is something scarier about the Adjutants that even eclipses their infection ability. [[spoiler: They're the husks of a ''[[NothingIsScarier completely unknown pre-Prothean species.]]'' [[CosmicHorrorStory All that's left of an entire species that fought against and fell to the Reapers is a techno-organic virus that twists the infected into the shape of their husks.]]]]
* We all know a [[AntiHero Renegade]] Shepard can make some questionable decisions under the banner of [[WellIntentionedExtremist the ends justify the means]], but the interrupt that appears to [[spoiler: sacrifice thousands of Omega citizens to save Aria and Nyreen]] instead of looking for an alternative comes very quickly, and Shepard is extremely nonchalant about the deed, and shows no remorse. Bear in mind this is not like [[spoiler: killing the Rachni Queen in order to potentially stop billions from being killed by them if they turned out to be evil, or Arrival where delaying the Reapers could have been very very important]] this is for the benefit of a crime boss and a mercenary. And the worst part? If you don't take the Interrupt the first time, it comes up again TWICE. Even the most Paragon Shepard is having to fight very, '''very''' hard to avert the urge to slap the button.
** Unless you're playing as an Engineer, in which a ''Paragon'' interrupt occurs, allowing Shepard to [[spoiler: reroute reactor power to shut down the force fields ''and'' save the civilians]] in one-third the time it would normally take.
* If you don't interrupt [[spoiler: Aria from choking Petrovsky to death, her voice is very calm and cold throughout, and the whole scene can be quite uncomfortable]].
* The datapads lying around the crashed ship on the Leviathan's world. [[spoiler:The crew - the human crew, based on the names - were stranded and eventually turned to cannibalism, their captain accepting his fate as as food as they're eating him.]]
** [[spoiler: Worse, based on Leviathan's attitude, this wasn't its doing, it wasn't behind them doing this. They did this on their own.]]
* On the whole, Citadel is a [[CrowningMomentOfFunny light-hearted]] [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming love letter]] [[WinBackTheCrowd to the fans,]] but there are a few instances running throughout, and a fair amount of FridgeHorror:
** If it wasn't for Glyph [[spoiler: Shepard and crew would likely have perished in the Archives, as it's implied the rest of your team is in the same predicament as Shepard.]]
** As pointed out in-universe, [[spoiler: Shepard's Clone and Brooks]] are essentially the EvilCounterpart of [[spoiler: Shepard and Miranda.]] The worrying part is that [[spoiler: if Miranda had gone ahead with implanting a control chip, a Renegade Shepard would be virtually the same.]]
** There is nothing to say that there aren't more [[spoiler: Shepard Clones]] out there.
** Whilst running around in the Archives, Shepard can come across the entry for the battle of the Citadel back in the first game. Approach it, and it'll begin playback of a summary the commonly known version of events, that it was Saren & the Geth, until [[spoiler:it recognises that Shepard (and the Virmire Survivor if he/she is with you) is a Spectre, at which point it unlocks the classified section of the recording and reveal the ''the actual events'' & notes that Sovereign was a Reaper. ''The Council KNEW the truth about the Reapers, and still did nothing''.]]
** One of the historical recordings is a bunch of the last game's mechs who have achieves sentience peacefully waiting out of the way while their case goes through the courts. A Council death squad comes in and shoots them all dead in cold blood.
* The visit from Thane's ghost if you romanced him. If you take the visitation at face value, it's comforting: it virtually confirms an afterlife exists in the setting. If you don't, on the other hand, it says that Shepard is ''losing her mind'' and her heavily implied DeathSeeker impulses are manifesting as a hallucination of her dead lover, telling her that he'll await her in the afterlife.
* The Particle Rifle. It fucking ''liquefies'' the corpses, leaving nothing behind but puddles of... stuff. Imagine being an enemy, watching a friend go down fighting and then the corpse just... dissolves...
* The Refusal Ending. Fine, just giving the choices the middle finger? Now consider that the end result is everyone dying. Joker, EDI, Liara, Hackett... and those are those just guaranteed to make it to [=ME3=]. Everyone you kept alive, you just threw their lives away to say no to the endings, leaving them and trillions more to horrific deaths at the hands of the Reapers, being turned into various husks, or getting turned into Reaper slushie.
** For additional nightmare fuel, imagine Shepard's love interest in that playthrough. Now imagine them huskified. Liara as a Banshee, Garrus as a Marauder, Garrus/Wrex as a Brute, Ashley, Miranda, or Kaidan as husks or even used as the arm cannon for Cannibals... and now consider [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice husks are made.]] Got the images in mind, seeing what happens to them, considering what it must be like for them? Good, because that's what Refusal means. You're welcome.
* An unintentional example: the Recon Hood is buggy in such a way that in cutscenes where it gets taken off, Shepard suddenly loses his/her eyelids and develops this terrifying bug-eyed look.
* The idea of "sync-kills" i.e. instant kill animations are pretty unsettling. Most of them involve being crushed or impaled. You're completely helpless once it begins and unless and ally saves you it's either an instant game over or you're out for the rest of the wave. You'll soon find yourself scrambling to stay away from enemies that have them, not that they'll make it easy.
** Similarly the grab move by the good guys. From behind cover, someone pops out, takes you over and in under a second, either stabs you in the face, crushes your face with their fist, or mauls your face like an animal wielding omni-blades.
* Kalros, the Mother of ALL Thresher Maws. As if a common Thresher Maw isn't scary enough and you need heavy weapons and armored vehicles to kill her, now we meet an ancient Thresher Maw ten times bigger than a normal one and powerful enough to annihilate a Reaper Destroyer single-handedly. The worst part? Eve says that the Krogan believed that Kalros is the Mother of all Thresher Maws and was roaming Tuchanka for many millennia (more than 50 millennia after Javik confirmed that Thesher Maws existed during Prothean times and we considered the "Mother of All Thresher Maws" part as true) and Wrex mentions that he doesn't know any Krogan who has tried to kill her and survive. No wonder the Krogan, a tough ProudWarriorRaceGuy species, consider even the idea of killing Kalros as suicidal.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Expanded Universe]]

[[/folder]]

* NightmareFuel/MassEffect3

[[folder:Mass Effect 3]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maxresdefault_492.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"[[HellIsThatNoise Why make them yell?! That's totally uncalled for!]]"]]
* The [[EldritchAbomination Reaper]] invasion is happening in full force.
* Rachni husks. In the game, most enemies have weak points you can strike for an easy kill, and these things are no exception. The twist? Attack that and it unleashes a swarm of mini-rachni that crawl all over your body.
* Wondering how you make a krogan husk even more terrifying? Give it a turian head. Brutes are [[HybridMonster Reaper-engineered hybrids of turians and krogans.]] Leaving aside the fact that we're talking about a cross between a race of SpaceRomans and [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Guys]]. Leaving aside the fact that their appearance is just [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120104202658/masseffect/images/9/90/ME3_Brute.png hideously monstrous.]] The most bowel-clenchingly scary part of them is that krogans and turians are incompatible on a protein-level. They can't even eat the same food let alone reproduce. Try to imagine the levels of BodyHorror the Reapers had to inflict upon turians and krogans to produce such an abomination. Knowing how the Reapers do business, they were probably alive and screaming when it happened, just like [[spoiler:the colonists on the collector base.]] And then realize that because they're so incompatible, their own bodily fluids are likely killing them. Even if they survive this battle, they won't live to see another day. THAT is what lesser beings are to the Reapers. That is what you are. You are not a living being, you are a thing. You are something to be used. If you are lucky, if they think you're good enough, you will be dissolved and used to make more of the beings that murdered you. If you are found wanting, they will change you until they can make use of you. They will break all the laws of nature until you no longer exist as you once were, until your every cell is being killed by the act of being alive. And when you are of no use for you, you will die.
* Banshees: Ardat-Yakshi asari husks. The "Ruthless enemies" trailer shows them using '''Charge'''...before ''impaling Shepard'' on their hands. According to one article, at least one variant of the asari husk is ''pregnant''. And they're able to use their AY powers to override your nervous system for a OneHitKill. And why not? The Reapers could easily do it ''[[ForTheEvulz for fun]]''. They are, put simply, ''the'' hardest enemies in the franchise, and they announce their presence on the battlefield with a [[HellIsThatNoise spine-chilling scream]] that's explicitly noted to be potent Nightmare Fuel in-universe.
** The worst part about the banshees is the mission they're introduced in. You arrive at a desolate asari monastery in the wake of a missing squad of asari commands, only to find...[[NothingIsScarier Nothing]]...No visible enemies, complete darkness for a time, and the wails of the banshees in the background.
** They're the Reaper's Ultimate Troopers in Multiplayer, alongside Cerberus' Atlus Mechs and the Geth Primes, and they retain everything that makes them terrifying, right up to their one-hit kill. Many bowels have been voided when players tried to take advantage of the Firebase Reactor stage's incinerator, luring the Banshees inside and hitting the button, '''only for the banshee to warp right through the door'''.
* During the E3 demo of the invasion of Earth, Shepard and Anderson are on top of an apartment building watching the reapers destroy the city. As they move they come across a large hole blasted through the roof, two husks crawl out to rush them. Shepard and Anderson shoot them down, and jump into the apartment inside. Shepard opens a jammed door for Anderson, only to look back to a duct on the wall and notice a kid inside. He offers to take the kid to safety, but the kid refuses, knowing he was going to die. What would make a kid lose the hope to live? Then it [[FridgeHorror hits you]]: those two husks were his PARENTS!
* The knowledge that if you do not make all the right choices, ignore all the sidequest and pretty much just blaze through the game without a thought for the possible consequences, the Reapers will defeat you in war and continue the cycle of extinction for possibly another several million years. What makes this even WORSE is that you'll essentially be the one responsible for the Prothean's sacrifice being in vain, likely doom the galaxy to never having another chance like this again AND cause your entire species to be the next Reaper of this generation. The whole scenario is pretty much [[NiceJobBreakingItHero you completely screwing over the entire galaxy]].
* [[FanNickname Big Ben]] experiences one at the end of the first trailer. The look on his face is one of sheer terror as the Reaper slowly descends upon his position in the clocktower. ThisIsGonnaSuck doesn't even begin to describe it.
* From [[AllThereInTheManual The Art Book of]] [[WordOfGod the Mass Effect Universe]], we see [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120226045261/masseffect/images/a/a8/Tim1.png concept art]] of the Illusive Man as a [[AndIMustScream Reaperized monstrosity]] intended for the final battle. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This was eventually cut]] in favour of a battle with someone players were familiar with but the art work is the stuff of nightmares. [[spoiler: If that wasn't bad enough, other concept art suggests TIM goes through some major deterioration in the final game, becoming more husk-like and resorting to a life support machine of some kind just to keep his mind functioning.]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUD0M0S6zjY The new CG trailer for Mass Effect 3]] starts off with a child playing with her Alliance fighter in a sunflower field. The camera plays around between her and some actual fighters flying over a city. All seems peaceful and cheerful when suddenly the fighters are shot down, the music is mute and Reapers descend on the cities with lasers. There is no warning of their coming, they don't announce themselves and expect surrender, [[CombatPragmatist they straight up destroy everything the moment they're within range]]. The child's look of horror upon seeing a Reaper up close doesn't help either.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBktyyaV9LY&feature=g-u-u&context=G24bdcd3FUAAAAAAAAAA The extended cut]] shows even greater chaos, along with some recycled clips from the original Big Ben teaser trailer from a different perspective. The icing on the cake is the horrifying fast forward clip showing the process of [[AndIMustScream huskification]] on a mutilated corpse while [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice hanging from a spike]].
* Batarian Husks are called "Cannibals". Why? They regain health by eating fallen enemies and husks. They also have an arm cannon which is made out of a human husk. Nice.
* And the best part? All this chaos and destruction has ''[[ViciousCycle happened before]]''. Hundreds, perhaps ''thousands'' of times before. It was one thing hearing about what happened to the Protheans in [=ME1=], and getting glimpses of the horrors they went through. But seeing history repeat itself in person, in full detail to your ''own'' people...
* That moment when you see the first Reaper descend from the clouds. [[OhCrap The defense committee members' reactions say it all.]]
* Listening to the Cerberus grunts as you mow your way through them, either as Shepard or the Multiplayer teams. At first they're calm and professional, but they get progressively more panicked as you kill their buddies.
-->'''Assault Trooper:''' '''''[[MookHorrorShow TAKING CASUALTIES!!]]'''''
** In Multiplayer, the [[MookLieutenant Centurions,]] if the rest of the wave is cut down, will start screaming this in a panic as you close in on him:
-->'''Centurion:''' '''''[[DyingAlone SQUAD! RESPOND!]]'''''
* From the demo to the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG2mdZ23eP8&feature=g-all&context=G256392aFAAAAAAAABAA launch trailer]], we're assaulted by the souless mechanical screams and groans of the Reapers. Every time they rocket through the air, fear and dread are not far behind.
* No matter how scary it gets, you always have the comfort of knowing that there's a screen and a game between you and the Reapers. Now imagine this: You live on the Citadel, and one day you check your omni-tool to see Emily Wong reporting live from Earth, talking about a ship like the one that attacked the Citadel being on Earth. You follow the story as it unfolds with mounting horror as Emily encounters husks and Cannibals, frantically tries to warn people away from certain escape routes, and eventually is directly attacked. You receive the signal loss instantaneously, and with it goes your hope of hearing about the situation - maybe the people in charge will still know about what's going on back home, but you won't. All you can do is imagine and wonder what will happen when the Reapers get to you.
* You press the scan button once...and the edge of the system fills with red arrows and the detection bar fills about 4/5th of the way full. It's a very VERY effective way to make you know that you are being hunted. As the game progresses, the galaxy map fills up with new star clusters to explore....and just about every one of them has a Reaper marker on it. Perfectly sums up just how badly things are going for the entire galaxy. And then, as the game gets further along... clusters you CAN'T visit have Reaper markers on them. And just before the final mission... every single cluster that has a mass relay, that you can pass through, that you can visit and can't visit, has a Reaper marker over it. '''The Reapers HAVE THE GALAXY'''. Doubles as FridgeHorror when you realize that, just before Priority: Earth, [[spoiler:'''[[InferredHolocaust you can't access any other system.]]''']]
* It's discovered in "From Ashes" that the Protheans were a ProudWarriorRace of SpaceRomans...with some of the most powerful [[TheEmpath empathic abilities]] in fiction, and with their RealLife counterparts' tendency to obliterate the culture of the races they conquered, until they called themselves "Prothean" too. Just imagine what it was like facing an invasion fleet of theirs, knowing they can figure out your entire race's history simply by ''touching'' a member of it, and that if-when-they win, everything about who you were, as a people, will be torn apart and fed to the ever-expanding empire. And the thing is-it's either them, or [[RobotWar their enemies]].
** Even better-you know those Prothean outposts on Mars? Javik reveals that yes, they ''did'' uplift promising species...''as servants''. In case you haven't noticed, humanity has a [[Series/TheTwilightZone1985 small talent for war]], so ask yourself-[[FridgeHorror what would happen if the Protheans survived to see our capabilities as warriors...?]]
** Javik's own backstory has its own horrors. He commanded a ship much like the Normandy, until it was captured by the Reapers and its crew indoctrinated and sent after him. Imagine for a moment in [=ME2=] that you and your group ''weren't'' conveniently away from the Normandy when the Collectors invaded, and that all hands besides Shepard were taken by the Reapers. Then imagine that you tried to storm the Collector Base on your own, only to be faced with the indoctrinated forms of Garrus, Tali, and the other squadmates (love interests included), and forced to MercyKill every single one as they come after you. ''[[IronWoobie That]]'' [[IronWoobie is what Javik had to deal with.]] If you have him touch the Echo Shard he carried with him, ''that'' is what he is forced to relive as he touches that artifact. [[spoiler:And ''that'' is why he eventually will decide to kill himself if you let him do that]].
** How about this? [[spoiler:If you fail to rescue Grissom academy, much later, while you're storming Cerberus headquarters you will find this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPJj8efNskM. Yeah, it's not your entire team. But if she's your love interest, you'll have to MercyKill the one you love, indoctrinated and not even recognising you.]]
** That recording is just terrifying. To think if that had to happen to everybody who was [[spoiler: converted into a Cerberus Phantom. By the way Jack screamed whatever they did to her was not gentle nor was it painless. Likely an accelerated indoctrination process to make her loyal and quick n' dirty surgery with control chips, implants, and whatever other horrors they can cook up]].
* In universe example: Shepard has nightmares of the little boy s\he saw killed while trying to flee Earth. There are dream sequences where Shepard finds the boy in a forest, before he burns alive to his\her horrified face.
** Doesn't help when later in the game [[NothingIsScarier you hear voices and see shadowy outlines of former allies. Especially when the dream shows only one bench among windy weather, shaking trees, and the ghostly laugh of said child.]] If you want an idea of how chilling this particular sequence is, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4pqgBw_exw&list=FLdUCk5-dxXiV306c3y2LAQA&index=1&feature=plpp_video listen here]]. Combine that with the unnerving music, and you'll be having nightmares of your own.
* After [[spoiler:the attempted Cerberus coup]] on the Citadel, Shepard can listen in on a traumatized asari huntress in Huerta Memorial Hospital. She's twitchy and paranoid, asking what color her eyes are and begging to be kept away from humans, refusing to bathe and repeatedly pleading for a gun. By listening to a counselor's attempts to talk her through what happened, you learn why: [[spoiler:she was on a colony world, staying overnight in a farming community to wait for a shuttle and the rest of her squad. A hero-worshipping fourteen-year-old farmgirl offered her the use of their shower - and when she came out of the shower, still only wearing a towel, the farm was attacked by an Ardat-Yakshi friend of hers who'd been husked into a Banshee. With farmers dying and no way for her to get to her gun, the huntress grabbed the farmgirl and fled into the countryside, where they stayed on the run for several days until she realized that the shuttle wasn't coming back and they had to go back to the farm to radio for help. When they did, they found many of the farmers still alive - and when Hilary, the farmgirl, freed them, they attacked under the influence of indoctrination. The huntress was forced to kill most of them with her biotics, and fled again, taking cover in a barn, but Hilary's leg was broken and she couldn't stop crying. The huntress killed her to keep the noise from leading the Banshee to the both of them, and held out alone until a rescue shuttle finally arrived. The asari government wants to give her a medal for the intel she was able to provide, but she can only miserably blame herself for the deaths of the farmers]].
** Eventually, a message pops up in the Spectre terminal regarding an asari huntress's requests to obtain a gun. Authorize it, and [[spoiler:she commits suicide, leaving the hospital staff who were trying to help her demoralized]].
** It actually gets even worse. The farmgirl that she killed, the one called Hilary? [[spoiler: It's Joker's sister]].
* Glyph reveals that one colony dealt with an impending Reaper invasion by taking a third option rather than surrendering or fighting a futile ground war: they detonate thermonuclear weapons in all their population centers, sparing themselves [[MindRape indoctrination]] and denying the Reapers a source of cannon fodder.
** [[ItOnlyWorksOnce Unfortunately the Reapers learned from this,]] and started specifically targeting nuclear missile silos prior to invasion to avoid a repeat. Even ''nuclear holocaust'' only slows them down at best.
* The sheer lengths Han'Gerrel is willing to go to fuel his vendetta against the geth. [[spoiler:It ultimately culminates in him ''sending his entire race to their doom'' unless you either side with the quarians or made ''very'' specific choices in ''2'' and the build up to the final choice concerning Rannoch in ''3''.]]
* [[spoiler:Legion's [[FreakOut psychotic breakdown]]]] if you [[spoiler:side with the quarians]].
* [[spoiler: The rachni queen using a dozen or so dead krogan]] to talk through. Seeing their heads bob and move in unison is unnerving.
** Worse is if you're dealing with [[spoiler: the cloned Breeder, had you killed the original Queen]]. It just sounds...''off''. [[spoiler: The fact that she doesn't use the RoyalWe like her original counterpart is a definite clue that ''something is very wrong''.]] And if you elect to leave it behind, [[spoiler: it goes ''ballistic''. Having a dozen dead krogan screaming "'''KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!'''" is mighty unnerving. If Shepard spares the breeder in hopes that she will cooperate with the alliance to fight the Reapers, you will later be informed that as soon as the rachni reached the construction site of the Crucible, they betrayed the humans in revenge for killing their first queen by massacring every scientist they could get their hands on, completely wiping out the entire Alliance Engineering Corps.]]
* Combines with TearJerker. Shepard, the galaxy's ultimate hero\badass, slowly breaks until s\he is a broken wo\man, possibly bleeding to death, and left with deciding the fate of the galaxy.
* Pretty much [[spoiler: [[BittersweetEnding every ending]] [[DownerEnding when thought about-]]]]
** [[spoiler: Control Ending: Shepard makes a HeroicSacrifice but is now (supposedly) in control of the Reapers, but considering the [[BlueAndOrangeMorality odd]] [[InsaneTrollLogic logic]] of the Catalyst, there is nothing to say that this won't happen to Shepard's control over time.]]
** [[spoiler: Destroy Ending: All synthetic life is destroyed, so all the geth are destroyed meaning at best, the quarians have no help to rebuild their homeworld, at worst you let the quarians die for nothing. There is also the possibility that future races will inevitably create synthetics themselves, and thus the [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters whole situation will repeat itself again.]] This is also the only ending where Shepard is hinted at surviving, but if [[WildMassGuessing popular]] [[EpilepticTrees fan theory]] is adhered to, this means that the entire ending is a hallucination of Shepard's, who has now fought off indoctrination attempts... and is lying in ruins, bleeding to death after Harbinger's attack, still no closer to the Citadel beam.]]
** [[spoiler: Or even worse, Destroy ending with low EMS. Congratulations on setting off a galaxy-wide extinction event of all life, organic or synthetic, possibly even life on undeveloped worlds uninvolved in the war. Hackett survives and narrates the aftermath concerning their pyrrhic victory, and he doesn't sound too hopeful about the future of the handful of survivors.]]
** [[spoiler: Synthesis: Another HeroicSacrifice is made, leading to all organic and synthetic life are fused to make a [[ArtisticLicenseBiology new DNA]], inferred to occur with Reaper tech, essentially meaning [[FromACertainPointOfView they have won.]] Additionally there is the problem that this choice is forced upon the galaxy by Shepard, [[NotSoDifferent similar to the goals of the Catalyst/Reapers.]]]]
** [[spoiler:Even worse, if you look at the husk in the Extended Cut, you'll see that there is now some humanity in the automaton. Now imagine if that happened to a fused husk, like a Cannibal, a Brute, a Scion, or a Praetorian. While it may have been inadvertent, Bioware has managed to create a horror story on the level of Film/TheHumanCentipede.]]
** [[spoiler: All Endings: If the Crucible wasn't built correctly, i.e. without enough War Assets, it will not work at all (ergo Reapers will eventually win and cycles continue) or will destroy ALL organic and synthetic life in the galaxy. If it does work, no matter what, the Relays are destroyed. Finally there is the notion of the Normandy outrunning the Crucible's energy blast and crash landing on a remote, which implies they fled Earth and hit the Relay ''WHILST'' Shepard was on the Citadel making their decision. Your TrueCompanions? They left you to die. As others have aptly put it, ''Goddamnit, Bioware''. Thankfully revised in the Extended Cut, in which Admiral Hackett orders a mass retreat before the Crucible goes off, and while both Joker and your favourite teammate clearly don't ''want'' to leave you behind, they're well aware that Shepard wouldn't want to sacrifice the entire ship.]]
* Shepard in VideoGame/MassEffect3 and some of the moments here [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1CV86SnSPM just shows]] how Renegade Shepard isn't just ruthless to enemies anymore and more than willing to kill comrades if they step out of line. it leaves you knowing the fate of the galaxy lies within a completely ruthless anti-hero.
** You could even argue that some of those moments don't even fit the pragmatic definition of Renegade; [[MoralEventHorizon they're simply evil]], and in some cases, [[StupidEvil they even cause]] ''[[StupidEvil direct harm]]'' [[StupidEvil to Shepard's ability to fight the Reapers.]] [[spoiler: Then you take in [[WildMassGuessing the possibility that Shepard has been indoctrinated]]. Perhaps Renegade Shepard is succumbing to it even ''before'' the ending?]]
** Even worse, the the most heinous KickTheDog moments can only occur if Shepard mostly made paragon choices in the previous two games. S/he just... snapped.
* [[spoiler: [[RoboticReveal Robot]] ]] Eva Core [[spoiler: grabbing Kaiden or Ashley, then [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally and repeatedly smashing their skull against a shuttle doorframe.]] They get better, but it's still pretty disturbing to watch since combat's usually a fairly tame futuristic gun battle.]]
** Oh, and [[spoiler: the Virmire Survivor then gets to team up with Eva's body controlled by EDI, who has a history of violent behavior that the Survivor may know about. No wonder Ash was twitchy... Meanwhile, Kaidan's self-control is probably the only reason Shepard didn't have to delay the ''Normandy's'' departure to fix an EDI shaped hole in the hull.]]
* "Goodbye Thane. You won't be alone long." What's more disturbing, the number who will die against the Reapers or the implication; given everything s\he has gone through, that Shepard is a DeathSeeker?
* Commander Shepard is practically the embodiment of this to the Reapers. You look down on the battlefield and see a single human charging at them, ''on foot''. S/he clearly has no chance, no hope of defeating you, why does s/he persist? You line up your main cannon and s/he simply dodges the beam. Why does s/he fight the inevita- What is s/he picking up? Is that a-? Within seconds, you are broken and crashing to the ground. Then you realise that you forgot the most important thing of all, the reason why Shepard has killed so many of your brethren. S/he has no ''fear''. Until the last Reaper is dead, you will be hunted across the stars. Shepard will NEVER. ''[[{{Determinator}} EVER]]''. [[ImplacableMan STOP!]]
** Why else would the Reapers point their dreadnought-destroy guns at a single (wo)man? And even that doesn't stop him/her completely.
** The Leviathan, one of the creators of the being that created the Reapers, even outright states that Shepard is the only being in history that the Reapers have ever truly feared.
* The [=iOS=] app brings us this rather chilling message considering the context. The fact that it's on YOUR phone/computer, not Shepard's, makes it so much scarier.
-->[[spoiler: Wrex]]: I know what you did.
** [[spoiler: The sheer unadulterated remorselessness of Shepard when you pick the Renegade option. S/he's not trying to justify it. S/he's ''lying'' to one of his best friends' face on why s/he screwed the Krogan, betrayed Wrex personally, and shot Mordin in the back to do so.]]
* Illusive Man's [[spoiler: transformation at the end of the game is a bit disturbing. For starters, he has gone completely crazy, is under the control of the Reapers and has '''black veins on his neck'''....]]
* The Sanctuary! [[spoiler:Take a Nazi death camp and mask it as a refugee centers for people to voluntarily sign in to escape horrors of the war, and you have some idea of what the place is like. People by the thousands, if not millions get subjected to deadly experiments and turned into Husks just so that Cerberus can brute force the secrets of the Reaper Indoctrination from them. And what's worse, a great portion of the staff are just as blissfully unaware of the true nature of the place as the refugees, and believe that they'll be allowed into the facility proper once they've fulfilled their quota]]. Worse, that place was a very extensive base on Horizon, and likely wasn't built in the previous few months. Most likely, it was at least still being built the last time Shepard was sent to Horizon.
** [[FromBadToWorse It gets even worse]]. Consider the post-mission summary of the Reaper IFF mission. [[spoiler:Cerberus wasn't just planning Sanctuary during the second game. They used Shepard to make it possible.]]
-->Reaper IFF successfully retrieved. Loss of Cerberus team on the Reaper vessel unfortunate but unsurprising. Will use team's health records for comparisons against husks encountered on Reaper for '''possible insight into indoctrination and husk conversion process'''.
* The very last level of the game, when Shepard goes through the Reaper transport beam to [[spoiler: The Citadel]]. The room Shepard arrives in is filled with piles of bloody human corpses. Not to mention the implication of what may have happened there after [[spoiler: The Reapers seized the Citadel and moved it to Earth.]] And that they did so so quickly, you never even got a message about the attack until everything was done.[[spoiler: Made worse by the keeper present, silently sorting through the bodies. As we know from the second game, the keepers have been known to take corpses on the Citadel and ''process'' them in the protein vats]].
** What makes that even worse is that the last time Shepard was at the Citadel, pretty much every character not directly involved in construction of the Crucible, on Shepard's crew, or back on Earth with Anderson was on the Citadel, thinking that it was safe. Commander Bailey, your buddy from C-Sec? The Councilors? Matriarch Atheyta, Liara's father? Conrad Verner and his newly discovered girlfriend Jenna? That cute little girl who was waiting for her parents to arrive? The entire staff at Huerta Memorial hospital (including either Dr. Michel or Dr. Chakwas, depending on who you recruited)? Kolyat Krios? Literally millions of refugees? All gone... dying horribly and turned into fodder for the Reapers by the keepers.
** Worse in the Extended Cut, which adds a small scene in which you actually see Shepard being flung into the room, accompanied by an unexplained and very creepy sound, after which Shepard wakes up startled. [[spoiler:One fanon theory has it that the sound is Shepard's cybernetics kicking in to jump start his/her heart, implying that Shepard ''died'' when s/he got to the beam and was being dumped in that room with the rest of the human corpses.]]
* Apart from all obvious terror that you witness in your missions, watching how the entire universe deteriorate into a CrapsackWorld due to the war is really chilling. Especially in the refugee camp that was set up at the dock holding area in the Citadel, with the sounds in the background consisting of children crying and the TV reporting news that more worlds are being overrun by the Reapers. The general sense of hopelessness is both a tearjerker and terrifying in that it is so real and so personal.
* The final part of London. [[spoiler:The Destroyer is dead, Hammer Task Force is massing, getting ready for the final push. ''And then Harbinger lands beyond the Conduit''.]]
* Take a look at Javik. Then take a look at the Collectors. [[spoiler: Since Collectors are Prothean, [[BodyHorror see how different they are]]. The Reapers removed their mouths and digestive systems, forced the growth of a chitinous tissue, and gave the eyes a strange, soulless glow. Who knows what else has been modified under the skin]].
* The final scene of ANY of the endings. [[spoiler: The Normandy has crash-landed on an unidentified garden world, implied to be on the other side of a mass relay from the Local Cluster. The mass relays have just been destroyed. This means that the crew of the Normandy are trapped. Rations are going to run out eventually. But wait, you say. It's a garden world, so they'll be ok. Right? And then you realise - the Normandy has both levo and dextro crew. The garden world can't be both. So either Tali and Garrus are going to starve to death - or EVERYONE ELSE will]].
** Jossed, thankfully. [[spoiler: Patrick Weekes and others have stated that the Normandy has dextro-amino food stores, so Garrus and Tali will be fine. And with the EC, there are two possibilities that will save them. Either you've obtained middling War Assets, and you can see the crew rebuilding the Normandy to escape...or you have high enough War Assets that the Normandy just takes off and leaves.]] Still, it was touch and go for a bit there.
* You hear that sound? That [[HellIsThatNoise GNRRRGGHRGHHGGRRRGHGHGHRRRGHRHGRHH]] the Reapers make? It's specifically tuned to induce a panic response in organics, and it can eventually result in indoctrination. That sound instills fear in YOU, the player. And the horn cannot be forgotten; it's like an EarWorm. So, whenever somebody brings up Reapers again, you hear that noise in your head. YOU'RE BEING INDOCTRINATED THROUGH A TV SCREEN.
--> "It's too late for me. They're still in my head, stealing my thoughts."
* [[spoiler: If you try to shoot the Cataylst, or tell it to screw itself; its voice will go from [[VoiceOfTheLegion disturbing]] to flat out scary as hell as it lets the cycle continue. And then you get a front-row seat while watching the Reapers kill EVERYONE...and it's '''''all your fault''''']].
* Something about the krogan with glowing green eyes in the Synthesis ending is just unsettling.
* [[spoiler:Shepard-Reaper]] in the updated Control ending is absolutely ''terrifying.''
** In the Renegade Control ending, there are two lines that are shiver-worthy when coming from [[spoiler:the current leader of the Reaper forces:]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Shepard-Reaper:''' [[HeWhoFightsMonsters I will lead an army that no one will dare oppose. I will destroy those who threaten the future of the many.]]]]
** The background music - which is creepy at best, sinister at the worst - and the tone [[spoiler: Shepard-Reaper]] uses throughout the whole thing DOES NOT HELP. Hearing the above lines coming from a flat monotone is beyond disturbing, especially since it implies [[spoiler:Shepard is losing him/herself to the Reapers and will soon be no different than the Catalyst.]] Thankfully, the Paragon version, while still kinda creepy, doesn't have the same horrifying tone and implications.
* Cerberus half-husking their own people, which you see on Mars. The N7: Cerberus Lab mission heavily implies that they're also indoctrinating them - someone named C. Talavi left a journal entry upon recruitment remarking that the Cerberus people seem so intense all the time, they ''never'' smile, the suicide-upon-capture orders are kind of extreme, and there's a procedure he's supposed to start tomorrow called "integration", which he sarcastically claims to be looking forward to. The second journal entry is devoid of all that personality. Integration a success. Cerberus is his friend. Suicide on capture orders acknowledged. What makes it worse? Later in the game there's background chatter where a private wants to fight husks and not Cerberus, because her brother joined the latter. Her last name? Talavi.
** The face of the [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/File:CerberusHusk.png Assault Trooper on Mars]] is pretty creepy: he looks like a ''husk.'' Some [[http://mk01.deviantart.com/art/Phantom-317753197 fanart]] shows what a Phantom might look like, and it is somehow even scarier.
* Grissom Academy has Cerberus forces trying to convince students to surrender. You come across a few of these students out in the open, protecting themselves with dome-shaped barriers or shields, with Cerberus troopers standing just outside them ''calling them by name'' and complimenting their skills in threatening tones.
** One of the most upsetting parts of that mission is right after speaking to Kahlee. You see two Cerberus troopers dragging a student down the hall screaming with only a glass window between you and them. ''And you can't help him''.
* A pretty minor example, but if Kaidan's alive and part of the crew, then after Sanctuary he has a few lines about wanting to go after and kill the Illusive Man. A lot of the crew says similar things, but the cold intensity and sort of ''joy'' in his voice is unsettling. BewareTheNiceOnes indeed.
--> "Can you feel it, Shepard? Feel the quickening? Illusive Man better say his prayers tonight, because we're coming for him. Murderous asshole. Oh yeah. Tide is turning. I can feel it."
--> "After what I saw down there... [[TranquilFury I've never been more filled with rage]]."
--> "Sanctuary... Illusive Man's obviously crazy, but bring him on. Cases like this - I don't mind killing crazy."
* Entering a battlefield and the first thing you see is someone getting gunned down or dragged away, and ''there's nothing you can do help.''
* Leviathan, the first new single-player DLC. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zabmFgYmGYU trailer]] has this line in the [[EvilSoundsDeep unsettlingly deep voice]] of a Reaper.
--> '''YOU HAVE COME TOO FAR.'''
* Leviathan, the character from the first single-player DLC. [[spoiler: It's of the species that created the Reapers, and it wants the Reapers to pay their tribute to it in blood. And Leviathan has '''[[OhCrap friends]].''' It isn't unlikely to think that [[SequelHook Leviathan and his buddies will come for US next...]]]]
* The Leviathan DLC has you visit a mining facility under attack from Reaper forces. The miners are bizarrely calm, and keep telling Shepard to turn back. You keep finding datapads detailing the weird topics they're studying, none of which seem to have anything to do with mining. There are a few consoles that give Vid Tours, and the last one says the company "focuses on" before glitching out and going to a camera watching Shepard. The whole thing is incredibly creepy. [[spoiler:Then you get to the end and discover Leviathan has been controlling the miners for 10 years.]]
** The incredibly unnerving [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAghfWDa0jU#t=04m18s exchange]] with the two receptionists. You can just feel the tone plummets into something ice-cold when the receptionist says [[spoiler: "And now... we're done. '''Step away. You don't belong here.'''" At which point any sane person realises something is very wrong, as everyone has turned into an EmptyShell and the creepiness factor goes UpToEleven.]]
** "You shouldn't be here."
** The Female Miner who has her back to you when Shepard first enters the facility. While everyone turns to look at you, the way in particular she slowly turns her head around is ''ridiculously'' creepy to watch.
** The WhamLine at the end of that mission when Shepard realises that [[spoiler: the Miners have ''never'' heard of the Reapers!]]
--> '''Shepard''': [[spoiler: What ''year'' do you think it is?!]]
** The miners are seemingly doing everything except actually mining, namely studying things that they should have no interest in. Among these is an 'experiment' on pain capacity that, by the sound of it, seems to just be torturing some poor bastard until he broke and was no longer 'usable'.
* That lab with a still-reacting severed head. James calls it a Husk head, but it looks more like the head of a Cerberus trooper, not having the weird texture or the techno-ballgag. It ''swivels to face you''. And bites. A NightmareFetishist Shepard can decide to take it home and just... keep it in his/her cabin. Where it will STARE at your Space Hamster...before screaming at it. Poor Boo.
** [[spoiler: Remember the Extended Cut of the Synthesis Ending, where the Husk appeared horrified and self-aware of their new state? Now imagine what happened in the Synthesis Ending to the poor bastard who's head that was...]]
* Leviathan in general is probably the closest to straight horror that the Mass Effect series has ever come: [[MindRape instant indoctrination]], [[CreepyMonotone chilling staff]] at an otherwise AbandonedMine, all the little details and experiments like the seemingly innocuous plant that is actually highly toxic, with no reason ever given for their existance, chase scenes through darkened corridors with nothing but red warning lights, [[EvilSoundsDeep the possessed's warnings]], [[NothingIsScarier the almost pitch black deep sea dive]], [[spoiler: [[AGodAmI an encounter with one of probably the FIRST advanced civalisation]], [[AbusivePrecursors who precedes to invade Shepard's mind]], before [[CurbStompBattle trouncing a Reaper with a mere thought]]]] and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero finally the implication that after all this is over]] [[spoiler: The Leviathans will return to obtain [[NoodleIncident "tribute"]] from the [[OhCrap lesser species]]]]. Oh, and the artifacts have been on the Citadel and around people for goodness knows how long...
** On the other hand, [[spoiler: Shepard brings a healthy dose of this to knock the Leviathan [[BreakTheHaughty down a peg]]. They are alarmed that Shepard had the tenacity and determination to not only track them down, but went ''alone'' to confront them, admitting they have ''[[WhatTheHellAreYou never]]'' seen anything like Shepard before. Like Harbinger, their first thought was to keep Shepard for study and turn them into [[TheDragon their Dragon]], but when Shepard defiantly refused, they immediately abandoned that plan, realising that when something the Reapers are ''[[TheDreaded afraid]]'' of tells you to let them go, ''[[DoNotTauntCthulhu do it!]]'']]
** In addition, [[spoiler: the Leviathans are now known to exist. So even in an ending where Shepard dies, the galaxy knows Leviathan is out there. They know how it operates. Combined with having faced indoctrination before, you realize that if anything, NOT completing Leviathan is worse because if you win without having done Leviathan, then they can wait in the shadows perfectly like the original Reapers. By finding them, you've revealed them to the galaxy and given warning which minimizes the blindsiding that would occur if Leviathan attempted anything. Some extra NightmareRetardant for those who need it.]]
** Completing the mission actually gives the players an option to warn the Reapers in the late-game. And [[spoiler:the Catalyst doesn't care. At all. This cycle will be their end as well. It makes no difference]].
* From Multiplayer, there is the N7 Fury. [[http://i48.tinypic.com/59wrqc.png The hood and the mask are creepy as hell]]. And then you realize she can use [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Annihilation Field]], which means that she has a [[BattleAura biotic "barrier"]] that hurts any hostile that gets within five feet of her. This is not someone you want to see bearing down on you.
** The Fury is by no means the only nightmarish playable MP character. Let's look at a [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters few examples out of the many]] from the perspective of some poor [[RedshirtArmy Assault Trooper:]]
*** Geth Juggernaut: You and your squadmates are moving towards the intended target, with the intent to destroy it at all costs. You come across the target... and it's a ten-foot-tall, hulking machine with a really big gun. Your first squadmate opens fire... and the machine hits him with a blue bolt of energy. Your companion ''dissolves screaming''' into a pool of... something. The next poor sap attempts to flank the geth, and is promptly incinerated by the small floating turret the geth deployed. Now you and your last buddy are shooting desperately, and the geth doesn't give a damn. It walks slowly over to your friend, and raises its omni-tool. Jets of blue energy lance out, and within seconds, the person who you'd been fighting alongside is nothin more than a puddle of blue lquid. Then you look down at your piddly little SMG, and realize that you are well and truly screwed.
*** Turian Havoc: Okay, it's just one turian. It may be difficult, but everything dies eventually, right? '''WRONG.''' The turian floats into the air with jet boosters, and barrels into your buddy, sending him flying out of sight. He jets off to the next one. And the next. Until finally, all that's left is you and him. But you decide to take a chance. You raise your Mattock rifle, and squeeze the trigger. The turian falls to one knee: you managed to land one on his ankle. Finally, something's going your way! But it's all for naught, as he pulls out a syringe gun, and jabs himself. The he gets back up on his feet. You turn to run, but you just hear his jets fire one final time, and before you can blink, he's on top of you, two omni blades going straight through your heart and brain.
*** N7 Slayer/Shadow: You're shooting at the target... and then s/he's not there. Where did s/he go? What happened? You hear a shriek from behind you, and you turn around just in time to see your comrade's head fly off. You start shooting , but the enemy disappears again and decapitates another Trooper. And there's nothing you can do but keep shooting, until you feel the cold steel of the enemy's blade against your throat.
*** N7 Destroyer: You're on route to a target with your squad, when out of nowhere a heat-seeking missile gibs one of your squad-mates. Your squad turns to see where it came from, revealing an Systems Alliance soldier in a T5-V Battlesuit, a miniature rocket launcher on his shoulder cycling to the next shot. You order your squad to open fire, two Concussive shots fire at the soldier. A few seconds before they hit, you hear "DEVASTATOR MODE ENGAGE!!!". They hit, some smoke obscures him. Before the smoke clears they return fire, mowing down the rest of your squad. The smoke clears, and the N7 soldier is glowing, slowly walking towards you, while reloading.
*** Krogan Battlemaster Vanguard: As soon as you deploy and secure the area, an angry krogan screaming murderous oaths and pumping a shotgun comes into view. You've faced these before, what could they do to a disciplined, experienced squad like yours? Then he melts into blue lightning and flattens your first squadmate, explodes the head of your second with his shotgun, then swings the shotgun with enough force for the omniblade attached to it to bisect your third squadmate, armor and all. Reinforcements show up and pelt him with enough rounds to put down TEN krogan, but he takes most of it with a ridiculously thick biotic barrier and shrugs off the rest on his massive armored form. As he caves in your skull, you realize that he'll never die, and no amount of training, skill and armor can halt the metric ton of enraged berzerker battering his way through Cerberus' best.
*** Volus Protector Vanguard: Rounding the corner, you see your objective. And it's guarded by… a volus? Are they really so desperate? You take aim, trying hard not to laugh, when the little runt disappears. What? Where did he- A weird noise sounds, and the guy covering your flank is sent rocketing into the wall, pasting it with blood. The volus is back, and now you have a clear shot. You aim, and open fire. But he just raises a shield, causing all bullets to richocet wildly. He drops the shield, and before you can pop the heat sink, he creates three tiny orbs in the palm of his hand, and sends them flying at you. You feel pain flood your body, and you drop your SMG as you collapse to the ground. You try to reach for it, but the volus slams a boot on your wrist, breaking the bones within to splinters. Looking up, you see the volus holding one more biotic orb at the ready.
* The Reapers are absolutely terrifying in this game. Every part of the game only further jams in the truth that this war is a completely HopelessWar. Right from out of the gate, they utterly steamroll over the batarians, wiping out a majority of their species in a few weeks. They cut through the majority of the human fleet and conquer the whole Sol system in a matter hours and just a portion of their fleet has the most powerful military in the galaxy, the turians, just barely holding out against them. When they conquer a system, they bring their leaders aboard as for "peace talks", indoctrinate them and turn them against their own people. And the husk versions in this game are nightmarish. Galactic citizens begin using the most desperate tactics imaginable from kamikaze attacks and destroying up their entire planets, hoping to take down as many as possible. [[CurbStompBattle The problem is that it's not nearly enough.]] [[GodzillaThreshold It's easy to see why all galactic civilization put their faith in a weapon that no one knows the capabilities of.]]
* [[spoiler: Our galaxy is one giant sandbox for a single programmed intelligence to experiment with, to find new ways to succeed in its ultimate goal, completely missing the point of its original intended directive by taking its objective too literally and too vaguely. Not only that, but it created artificial methods in which to speed up the process of what it was intended to avert in the first place all so it could arrive to the final stage in its experiment time and time again.]] This only drives the realization deeper into us that we were never in control of our fate from the word go. It truly makes you wonder how many before us actually realized this before they were harvested.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZqwuHFIgIA The Retaliation DLC Trailer]] has one giant pants-wetting moment, aside from [[spoiler: The '''FUCKING COLLECTORS ARE BACK!]]''', which is this- the team get ready to fight the Collectors- '''WHEN A REAPER DROPS BEHIND THEM.''' Not a small one, either- one about the size of... [[spoiler: '''[[FridgeHorror Harbinger?!]]''' controlling the Collectors again?!]]
* In Omega, we get the Adjutants, creatures scary enough to make Nyreen Kandros, a seasoned military and mercenary commander, have a HeroicBSOD. [[NothingIsScarier Not to mention the mines where you meet them.]] Nyreen recognizes the noise and remarks that the entire mine must have been locked down to contain it. No mention is made of other Adjutants, meaning Nyreen is convinced that an entire sector of Omega was locked down to just contain ''one.'' [[spoiler: Unfortunately, it wasn't. It was locked down to contain multiple Adjutants.]]
** Just to clarify how terrifying the Adjutants are, they're a form of Reaper organism that Cerberus have trying to cultivate with mixed successes. The only ones that serve them as intended are encountered during the final confrontation of the DLC with the rest being ferals that attack anything that comes close. They're horrifying meshes of flesh and metal, even ''moreso'' than some of their contemporaries, with hideous glowing blue sacks growing on their backs that contain their ''brains''. Yes, "brains" ''plural.'' Nothing anyone [[CutscenePowerToTheMax outside of]] [[GameplayAndStorySegregation gameplay]] does can stop them as they tear through Cerberus and Omega's citizens alike. And the worst part about their abilities? The part that has Nyreen terrified of even one? They're a living plague that can infect ''anyone'' and convert them into more Adjutants. [[spoiler: The only reason they don't in the game is because Cerberus has been experimenting on them to gain control over them, temporarily removing their ability to replicate through infection. Though knowing Cerberus, they'd absolutely return that ability once the Adjutants were fully under their control.]]
*** There is something scarier about the Adjutants that even eclipses their infection ability. [[spoiler: They're the husks of a ''[[NothingIsScarier completely unknown pre-Prothean species.]]'' [[CosmicHorrorStory All that's left of an entire species that fought against and fell to the Reapers is a techno-organic virus that twists the infected into the shape of their husks.]]]]
* We all know a [[AntiHero Renegade]] Shepard can make some questionable decisions under the banner of [[WellIntentionedExtremist the ends justify the means]], but the interrupt that appears to [[spoiler: sacrifice thousands of Omega citizens to save Aria and Nyreen]] instead of looking for an alternative comes very quickly, and Shepard is extremely nonchalant about the deed, and shows no remorse. Bear in mind this is not like [[spoiler: killing the Rachni Queen in order to potentially stop billions from being killed by them if they turned out to be evil, or Arrival where delaying the Reapers could have been very very important]] this is for the benefit of a crime boss and a mercenary. And the worst part? If you don't take the Interrupt the first time, it comes up again TWICE. Even the most Paragon Shepard is having to fight very, '''very''' hard to avert the urge to slap the button.
** Unless you're playing as an Engineer, in which a ''Paragon'' interrupt occurs, allowing Shepard to [[spoiler: reroute reactor power to shut down the force fields ''and'' save the civilians]] in one-third the time it would normally take.
* If you don't interrupt [[spoiler: Aria from choking Petrovsky to death, her voice is very calm and cold throughout, and the whole scene can be quite uncomfortable]].
* The datapads lying around the crashed ship on the Leviathan's world. [[spoiler:The crew - the human crew, based on the names - were stranded and eventually turned to cannibalism, their captain accepting his fate as as food as they're eating him.]]
** [[spoiler: Worse, based on Leviathan's attitude, this wasn't its doing, it wasn't behind them doing this. They did this on their own.]]
* On the whole, Citadel is a [[CrowningMomentOfFunny light-hearted]] [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming love letter]] [[WinBackTheCrowd to the fans,]] but there are a few instances running throughout, and a fair amount of FridgeHorror:
** If it wasn't for Glyph [[spoiler: Shepard and crew would likely have perished in the Archives, as it's implied the rest of your team is in the same predicament as Shepard.]]
** As pointed out in-universe, [[spoiler: Shepard's Clone and Brooks]] are essentially the EvilCounterpart of [[spoiler: Shepard and Miranda.]] The worrying part is that [[spoiler: if Miranda had gone ahead with implanting a control chip, a Renegade Shepard would be virtually the same.]]
** There is nothing to say that there aren't more [[spoiler: Shepard Clones]] out there.
** Whilst running around in the Archives, Shepard can come across the entry for the battle of the Citadel back in the first game. Approach it, and it'll begin playback of a summary the commonly known version of events, that it was Saren & the Geth, until [[spoiler:it recognises that Shepard (and the Virmire Survivor if he/she is with you) is a Spectre, at which point it unlocks the classified section of the recording and reveal the ''the actual events'' & notes that Sovereign was a Reaper. ''The Council KNEW the truth about the Reapers, and still did nothing''.]]
** One of the historical recordings is a bunch of the last game's mechs who have achieves sentience peacefully waiting out of the way while their case goes through the courts. A Council death squad comes in and shoots them all dead in cold blood.
* The visit from Thane's ghost if you romanced him. If you take the visitation at face value, it's comforting: it virtually confirms an afterlife exists in the setting. If you don't, on the other hand, it says that Shepard is ''losing her mind'' and her heavily implied DeathSeeker impulses are manifesting as a hallucination of her dead lover, telling her that he'll await her in the afterlife.
* The Particle Rifle. It fucking ''liquefies'' the corpses, leaving nothing behind but puddles of... stuff. Imagine being an enemy, watching a friend go down fighting and then the corpse just... dissolves...
* The Refusal Ending. Fine, just giving the choices the middle finger? Now consider that the end result is everyone dying. Joker, EDI, Liara, Hackett... and those are those just guaranteed to make it to [=ME3=]. Everyone you kept alive, you just threw their lives away to say no to the endings, leaving them and trillions more to horrific deaths at the hands of the Reapers, being turned into various husks, or getting turned into Reaper slushie.
** For additional nightmare fuel, imagine Shepard's love interest in that playthrough. Now imagine them huskified. Liara as a Banshee, Garrus as a Marauder, Garrus/Wrex as a Brute, Ashley, Miranda, or Kaidan as husks or even used as the arm cannon for Cannibals... and now consider [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice husks are made.]] Got the images in mind, seeing what happens to them, considering what it must be like for them? Good, because that's what Refusal means. You're welcome.
* An unintentional example: the Recon Hood is buggy in such a way that in cutscenes where it gets taken off, Shepard suddenly loses his/her eyelids and develops this terrifying bug-eyed look.
* The idea of "sync-kills" i.e. instant kill animations are pretty unsettling. Most of them involve being crushed or impaled. You're completely helpless once it begins and unless and ally saves you it's either an instant game over or you're out for the rest of the wave. You'll soon find yourself scrambling to stay away from enemies that have them, not that they'll make it easy.
** Similarly the grab move by the good guys. From behind cover, someone pops out, takes you over and in under a second, either stabs you in the face, crushes your face with their fist, or mauls your face like an animal wielding omni-blades.
* Kalros, the Mother of ALL Thresher Maws. As if a common Thresher Maw isn't scary enough and you need heavy weapons and armored vehicles to kill her, now we meet an ancient Thresher Maw ten times bigger than a normal one and powerful enough to annihilate a Reaper Destroyer single-handedly. The worst part? Eve says that the Krogan believed that Kalros is the Mother of all Thresher Maws and was roaming Tuchanka for many millennia (more than 50 millennia after Javik confirmed that Thesher Maws existed during Prothean times and we considered the "Mother of All Thresher Maws" part as true) and Wrex mentions that he doesn't know any Krogan who has tried to kill her and survive. No wonder the Krogan, a tough ProudWarriorRaceGuy species, consider even the idea of killing Kalros as suicidal.
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[[folder:Mass Effect 1]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/44bd1a2e_e520_4108_8ed2_9af5363f8314.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Nothing's ever simple, is it?"]]
* It's bad enough when soldiers and police abuse their power and hide behind their respective agencies to avoid justice. But just imagine a rogue Spectre like Saren. Spectres can break almost any law to complete their mission. A good Spectre does his best to minimize collateral damage and innocent deaths, Saren not so much. If he doesn't like you, he will kill you and you don't even get the satisfaction of knowing that he will get in trouble, at least until Shepherd kicked his ass. Reading ''Literature/MassEffectRevelation'' will add to your nightmares as you understand just how much of a dick Saren was in making sure that Anderson wouldn't get a chance to become a Spectre.
* ''MSV Worthington''. A [[spoiler:drifting, abandoned ship in space housing a brain-dead man by the name of Jacob, on life support systems. Turns out the crew planned on pulling the plug - the only problem being that it did not go that well with Jacob's [[TheForce biotic]], PTSD girlfriend.]] The part where [[spoiler:upon hearing the last entry in the Captain's log, which ended in his bloodcurdling scream, Julia suddenly appears and rabidly attacks you]] made it even more disturbing. And you can search every corner of the entire ship prior to hearing the logs and find nothing, not even a trace of where Julia might be. This means that she must've been hiding very well, [[ParanoiaFuel watching your every move the moment you entered the ship]], and trying to anticipate how much of a threat you were to Jacob before madly rushing in and attempting to kill you.
* The [[spoiler:VI on Luna instantly putting up barriers in all doorways after trashing the second processor cluster.]] Even more creepy: The binary code it sends just before it dies? It means "HELP!". ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' reveals that [[spoiler: the VI was actually a sentient Artificial Intelligence. So, you basically killed a sapient being that was just trying to defend itself once the Alliance realised it had become self-aware. Humanity [[HistoryRepeats started their very own Morning War in miniature]] and you, ''personally,'' had a hand in it.]] What's more, in-game information you discover makes you realize that [[spoiler: Cerberus, those goons you're working for, were responsible for hacking the VI and giving it sentience]]. VideoGame/MassEffect3 reveals that [[spoiler: EDI used to be that AI, ''and'' she remembers what happened. Good thing she doesn't hold a grudge.]]
* Oh God, the [[spoiler:'''Rachni Song''']]! It can be observed on various planets and moons, up to and including [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRmR0258vQ0 Luna]] where no [[spoiler:rachni could possibly exist]]! Creepy.
* The appearance of the Protheans themselves, in both visions and their statuary on Ilos, shows that they have ''tentacles'' coming from where you would expect eyes, and a head spookily reminiscent of Cthulu.
** To makes matter worse, this was taken from Illos where the Prothean scientist was desperate trying to find out what the race before them was trying to learn what happened to them and that the vision they saw was in fact a second hand memory. As we learned the physiology of the actual Protheans themselves.
** [[spoiler:Those aren't actually the Protheans- Javik reveals in [=ME3=] that they are an extinct race called the Inusannon who came before the Protheans. Still doesn't make them less horrifying, though.]]
* The scene before the final fight with [[spoiler: Saren twitching in the air, screaming as his flesh sloughs off, revealing the metallic skeleton beneath.]] BodyHorror at its finest.
** Before that, any close-up of Saren, where you see the metal bits and pieces that look to have been glued onto him at seemingly random places. One of them looks to be pushing through the skin of his mandible.
** If you had enough Charm or Intimidate points, you get to see Saren [[spoiler:blow his own brains out. As in, you can watch the side of his head explode as he pulls the trigger]].
* The sidequest "I Remember Me", available to Colonist background players [[spoiler:where Shepard must talk down a deranged former slave woman.]] To make it doubly so, the horrors Talitha describes? What she went through to drive her to the brink of suicide? Shepard was on the same colony the batarians raided and about the only one to escape, and that's only because s/he was buried in rubble and left for dead after witnessing her/his parents [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill get killed by an artillery strike]].
** Talitha mentions the Batarians had "lights" and "hoses" and whatever it did to her parents [[ImMelting melted]] them in front of her.
** Add to this her line about how they "did things to her in the dark". Oh, and Shepard was sixteen when s/he was left for dead. Talitha (the young woman in question) was [[WouldHurtAChild SIX]]. What did Slavers do to a six year old girl? Keep in mind Mindoir is also the event that caused Spacer Shepard's side mission NPC [[ShellShockedVeteran Zabaleta]] to suffer PTSD and hit rock bottom.
* When [[spoiler:[[EldritchAbomination Sovereign]]]] reveals itself. Even better if you'd managed to not spoil yourself before then. The music, [[EvilSoundsDeep the voice]], and the slowly building sensation of dread you feel as you realise just what it is you're up against.
-->'''[[spoiler:Sovereign]]''': [[spoiler:'''[[AC:Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over.]]''']]
* Husks are the reanimated corpses of human beings with their nervous systems replaced with technology. The process is done by ''[[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaling them on a spike]]''. In fact, ''they don't even have to be dead'' to be converted into Husks. The geth (killer robots) don't ''look'' creepy (they have flashlights for heads), but the noise they make when they spot your squad ('''HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH''') is horrific. And then there's Shepard's nightmarish visions of [[spoiler:the Prothean war with the Reapers, which mainly consists of the Protheans getting torn limb from limb by evil cyborgs]]. Further consider this: [[spoiler:What you are actually watching in those visions is not the destruction of the Protheans per se, but their conversion into the Collectors. There's one side mission in which out of the blue you stumble across another Prothean artifact, which gives you the vision you know inside and out: except this time you are hit with the horrible realisation that one of the figure who is vainly trying to flee has four horizontally arranged eyes which are instantly recognisable. Believe it or not, there is a fate worse than extinction.]] And you're not just watching [[spoiler:the Protheans' conversion, either. [[NothingIsScarier You don't even see all that much, but whatever you see is enough to know it's not pretty]]. [[BodyHorror And you hear mechanical sawing noises.]] [[FateWorseThanDeath And screaming]]. [[HellIsThatNoise Lots of screaming.]]]]
* Imagine it. You're peacefully going about your business in the wards of the Citadel when suddenly sirens begin to wail. Completely out of nowhere, unknown, gargantuan starships of unfathomable power emerge and exterminate everything, spreading out across your empire and slaughtering, subjugating or [[spoiler:genetically modifying]] everything you hold dear, then using [[spoiler:the liquefied slurry that used to be your bodies to produce and power more of themselves.]] This is the fate of the Protheans, and innumerable species before them. And it's going to happen again, and again, and again... Seriously, the Reapers themselves are the scariest thing in the game. Made even worse by several of [[spoiler:Harbinger]]'s lines in ''Mass Effect 2'': [[spoiler:"Sentient beings need never fear me." "We are your salvation through destruction." The Reapers believe that they are doing these species a FAVOR.]] The ending of the first Prothean message on Ilos springs to mind. [[spoiler:'''''"Cannot be stopped... cannot be STOPPED..."''''']] And turned into diesel was the ''lucky'' fate for most of them. The rest [[spoiler: were forcibly mutated into the Collectors.]]
* [[spoiler: The corpse puppet asari commando jerking about like a marionette as the Rachni Queen talks through her.]]
** Speaking of [[spoiler:the rachni]], there is also the part on Illium in VideoGame/MassEffect2 where [[spoiler:you're greeted by an asari acting as a messenger for the Rachni Queen if you set her free back on Noveria.]]
* On Noveria, [[spoiler:Matriarch Benezia's dying words]]. To make it more nightmarish: [[spoiler:after being significantly weakened in attempting to stop Shepard and his squad, she manages to break free of indoctrination long enough to explain Saren's plans involving the rachni queen, and, if Liara is with Shepard, to say her final goodbyes to her daughter. Beforehand, according to her, her true self was locked in a dark corner of her mind as Saren imposed his will upon her through Sovereign. And she just manages to overcome the indoctrination just so that she could die as herself. And then the very last comforting thought she clung to as her life slipped away turned out to be nothing but an empty void]].
-->"No light? They said there would be a... ah..."
* Species 37. The Thorian is a [[spoiler: sentient plant that controls minds through Pavlovian MindRape]]. Then you find out that [[spoiler:it produces hideous zombie-like humanoids called]] [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Thorian_Creeper Thorian Creepers]], and promptly lose your lunch. The horror might be somewhat alleviated by the fact that [[spoiler:the [[OneGenderRace asari clones]] it spits out are somehow [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe still quite lithe]],]] but [[FridgeLogic then you realize that]] [[spoiler:the fact that this thing can spit out powerful [[MindOverMatter biotics]] at will]] might not be a good thing.
** The literal swarms of Thorian Creepers crouched fetal position on the floor, just ''waiting'' for you to walk closer, before jumping up, '''skipping''' at you, and then just standing in front of you for a moment, swaying slightly, then ''vomiting acid all over you''. The fact that they look like [=ReDeads=] don't help at all. Remember too that they don't all get up when you get close: they're invulnerable while they're inert, but you could be fending off a wave that's swarming from the next room only to realize that you're surrounded by inert creepers...and they're waking up.
** Speaking of [[spoiler: MindRape, that mind control!]] The Thorian causes debilitating pain [[spoiler: at even the ''thought'' of resistance. Ian Newstead tries to drop hints and seems to take a perverse joy in "invoking the master's whip", but even he can't do anything. If you save the colonists one describes the control as making any pure thought into agony. Another says it was like being slapped every time she started to raise her eyes.]]
** And this is something that the company funding the colony just ''let happen'' so they could study it!
* Ammo that goes under the category of 'fire', 'ice', or 'poison' in the game will ''disintegrate'' enemies upon killing them. and it ''can'' happen to you.
* Also, Han Olar telling the story of [[spoiler:how he escaped the rachni.]] The scariest part is hearing how the rachni in the labs are beyond saving. Essentially, the gist is that [[spoiler:the rachni are a telepathic sentient species. As long as the smaller ones are within telepathic range of the queen, they become intelligent and sentient. If they're outside the queen's range of influence, they go permanently feral. Just thinking about what that must be like, feeling your connection to the queen go, and then your mind following it, is chilling.]] Humans need contact with others to stay sane [[spoiler:and so do the rachni. Imagine a human child that has never had anyone hold it, comfort it or even ''talk to it.'' That's the rachni you now face.]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Rachni Queen:''' Fear has shattered their minds.]]
-->'''Liara:''' A child locked in a closet for sixteen years would hardly be sane.
* The Hot Labs. [[spoiler: Once you trigger the neuron purge, the main part of the chamber is instantly filled with rachni. Dozens of them, and they don't stop. Your radar screen is ''full'' of red dots.]]
* It gets worse in a similar side mission in ''Mass Effect 2''. [[spoiler:While you're out scanning planets for minerals or side missions, you receive an anomalous distress beacon. EDI tells you there's signs of movement, but no organic life, so you assume either rogue robots or geth, so you create your team appropriately to deal with that. WRONG. The landing cinematic shows a "Blink and You'll Miss It" moment of a husk wandering past the entrance, ignoring you. You decide to go back to the Normandy to reform your team appropriately, but the auto-nav makes it fly away, giving you no choice but to press onwards. Once inside, you find a Franchise/ResidentEvil style file telling you to get the hell out of there, ASAP. That's when the fun begins. Heading deeper into the mines, you find more Husks than the first Mass Effect ever had, and their [[IncendiaryExponent exploding cousins the Abominations]]. Deeper in, you find more files telling of the miners' fates, along with some Husks dropping down from the ceiling, before going through one more mass of Husks to destroy the mines and complete the mission. ]]
* The [[GhostShip derelict freighter]] ''Cornucopia''. You're slowly making your way through the labyrinthine cargo hold and then [[spoiler: a herd of husks suddenly attacks you.]]
* Indoctrination is the worst thing to happen to anyone. Let's take a situation like Benezia's example, assuming the Reaper has an organic commander like Saren. You initially despise him, can't believe you have to put up with him. And as time goes on, you start agreeing with his commands. You sit at his feet, and smile and nod, while he details all his plans of torture and galactic annihilation. Now, imagine after a while, you are now in a glass box hovering above the world, your arms bound but you are still able to move. It hovers over a man or a woman who looks just like you, as s/he walks through a town, slaughtering innocents. Men, women, children, he kills all of them because the man in the angry mechanical cuttlefish says to. And you try so desperately to stop it, to break the glass by throwing yourself into it, but not even a crack appears. You just keep making yourself weaker, the wo/man quickens their step. And then, when you've finally exhausted yourself, s/he stops, and stands. Just stands, and does nothing else. Maybe mumbles some nonsense. And you lie there, bruised and broken, sobbing until the wo/man dies, and you're finally released. ''That'' is the true definition of Hell. Worse if you consider that, if you aren't like Benezia, you will feel your mind crumbling bit by bit, until you're just a zombie. Imagine every memory, dream, feeling and desire, being slowly erased, while you're unable to do anything except waiting for your mind to be consumed by the void, leaving [[FateWorseThanDeath no]][[AndIMustScream thing]]... Remember that hanging around a Reaper is not the only way to get indoctrinated: [[spoiler:Shepard's "paperweight"]] can do it as well.
* Ilos. Think about it, and take the music out. A massive, abandoned city, overgrown with the vegetation of 50,000 years. Completely silent. The only thing you can here is the sound of your own squad's breathing, the sound of wind, and the electronic squawks and clanking of the geth moving around the ruins. Then add horrific statues of Cthulhu that silently watch you, put in malfunctioning computers that scream "Can not be stopped! CAN NOT BE STOPPED!!!" at you and tell you about the creatures currently eating the brains of the now-dead inhabitants of the planet, and [[SerialEscalation THEN]] fill it with unspeaking, homicidal robots with plasma weapons who, once they've beaten you down, will stab you onto a ten-foot-tall pole and wait for your organs to dry out in order to turn you into a cyborg zombie.
** The description from the galaxy map mentions that the planet has been devastated [[NothingIsScarier by means unknown]] and its entire surface has turned to the color of rust. Atmospheric oxygen levels are high and there are massive wildfires consuming the surface, which means most if not all breathing animal life is extinct. Then there's what your team will say if you talk to them:
--->'''Garrus:''' There are secrets here that were meant to be forgotten.
** The countless cryo pods... [[spoiler: all of them filled with 50,000 year-old-corpses.]]
** The computer messages are not only fragmented but also in Prothean, which only Shepard can understand; to the rest of the squad, it's just gibberish. Even if Shepard translates them word for word, their meaning is left to the imagination...
* Dr. Saleon's experiments. To elaborate he [[spoiler: grew artificial limbs and organs inside of his employees and surgically removed them when they were done growing. To make matters worse, if the organ wasn't good, he would just leave it inside]]. Not to mention [[spoiler: what you run into when you find him again. They are simply re-labled Thorian Creepers. These are the end result of Saleon's medical experiments. These are one of only three "zombie" enemies you run into. The first are made with Reaper technology, the second by a 50,000+ year old sentient plant. These? Victims of a fucked-up salarian organ thief. And when you find the man, there is absolutely ''no'' explanation given as to what he did or what reason he was doing it for. And there are well over a dozen of these victims]]. Is it any wonder Garrus is itching to rid the galaxy of this scumbag?
--> '''Garrus:''' [[spoiler:I'd harvest his organs]], but we don't have enough time.
* The fact that only Shepard can understand the malfunctioning Prothean VI first encountered on Ilos. Shepard does not merely understand it as one would a language that has been learnt, but literally hears it as ''English!'' Hell, Shepard doesn't even ''notice'' this until its pointed out! This is possibly one of the clearest depictions (aside from visions) that the Prothean Beacon has fundamentally altered Shepard's brain in some way and the sheer power of what effect this has even on a subconscious level.
** That wasn't the beacon's doing; that was the result of a Thorian cramming 50,000 years worth of Prothean essence into your head over a single mind-meld.
* [[DepopulationBomb For every thousand krogan women, one is capable of bearing children.]] Roll that one around in your head a bit. As of this writing, approximately 7 billion humans are alive, which would translate into only 3.5 million fertile women -- less than are currently living in New York City right now. The remaining billions of women wouldn't even know they're sterile until [[AdultFear their children are stillborn.]] How long before even the barest pretenses of civilization collapse, with the handful of fertile women being little more than chattel for over half the world to fight over? Worse, the condition perpetuates even among the surviving children of fertile women -- how long before the population lacks enough genetic diversity to survive?
** It's worse than that. According to Mordin, the genophage is not a sterility plague, and all krogan women can conceive children successfully. No, that one in a thousand statistic is the number of children who ''survive.'' The vast, vast majority of krogan children are born dead - so, to have any chance at success, a krogan mother must have hundreds, if not thousands of stillborn children in order to have ''one'' success.
** What makes the genophage even scarier? The fact that, according to Mordin and other salarians, even despite that horrific birthing rate, the krogan would actually be having ''positive population growth'' if they weren't all rushing off to get killed as mercs and thugs. The krogan breed so much that, even if only one in a thousand children survive, their population would still ''rise'' rather than decrease over time. Gives you some horrifying idea as to just how easily krogan can strip a world bare, and why the other races decided that the genophage was their only option besides genocide. This is also why Mordin specifically mentions his work in modifying the genophage and releasing said modifications on Tuchanka, just to make sure that the krogan weren't adapting to the original strain.
* Somewhere between actual nightmare fuel and fridge horror lies the situation that the scientists on Noveria find themselves in as the [[spoiler:Rachni]] break free. Just imagine: you are in your lab, doing your everyday job, getting those last few tests done before you go on vacation. Then, out of the blue, alarms flare up, landlines (and thus communications) are disconnected, leaving you isolated in your lab. Then the power goes out, emergency generators kick in so lights and environmental controls work, but everything else is dead. No VI, no communications, no equipment, nothing. Then you hear those screeching and scurrying sounds coming from the pipes and ducts, screams and gunshots in the distance. You run for your life, trying to regroup when the co-worker you had breakfast with this morning gets cut in half by some alien creature from hell. If you happen to work in a different team, you will not even know what that thing is. So you regroup and wait for help. And you wait and wait, but nobody comes, and you know that if the situation is not controlled within a certain time frame, the managers back in Hanshan will order the place nuked from orbit. The screeching and crawling continues and every time a security team goes to deal with the situation, they come back with fewer people. Hours pass, nobody sleeps. You know the guards are overworked and on stims and then you see their fingers twitching...
* The final battle on the Citadel takes you up the outside of the tower along the elevator shaft that leads to the Council's chambers. No big deal, nothing too staggering, you're fighting enemies you've been dealing with for most of the game...but then you look up. And you see Sovereign. And you realize up close just how ''huge'' this thing really is, as previous cutscenes never really got that point across. And you realize that if it knew where you were on the tower, it could crush you in an instant simply by moving a leg. It all makes you feel very small and very weak despite how much damage you've been doing up to that point.
* There is a track that was never released on the official soundtrack called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37WL8SdFYE4 Abandoned Facility]]". It plays in the prefab bunkers on uncharted worlds and in some parts of Noveria's Peak 15 facility and it's creepy to no end, NothingIsScarier in music form.

[[folder:Mass Effect 2]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/proceso_de_humanos.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"[[FateWorseThanDeath My god… she's still alive!]]"]]
* In the prologue mission after Shepard is consigned to the void, you can see leaking atmosphere erupting from the back of their helmet, which they quickly notice as well and try to reach. Shepard is unable to seal the breach and begins flailing, clutching at their throat... a motion which ceases as they approach the planet. Possibly simply resource-saving on the cg-animation... or Shepard asphixiated long before they hit the atmosphere
* The audio logs from the empty areas of Omega's quarantine area area downright terrifying if you listen to them and think about them in turn for what they are:
** A series of logs from an in denial but still very infected member of one of the gangs fighting for control of the area, as he and another are locked in and slowly go insane.
** Even worse, an innocent who was locked into his small apartment during the quarantine - believing it all to be an extortion scheme, that he was going to be let out in a day or two. His body is fresh on the bed at the end of a blockaded hallways.
* Thane's PhotographicMemory, specifically the flashes of light and the look of his eyes. And not just his appearance as he lapses into one of his memories; the very idea that he can just immerse himself in one of them so easily. As he explains, you can find yourself in happy memories, or you might find yourself recalling an injury, like your knee getting shot, feeling that pain, seeing the damage all over again. At least in such cases, you can just look at the current state of your body to release yourself from that memory's grip, but to think that at any moment, if you were in some bizarre masochistic mood, without warning, your mind finds itself back in that moment of excruciating pain... Imagine if you had more negative experiences than positive ones. You probably don't need to torture drell all that much; just inflict enough pain enough times, and their own minds will finish the job for you.
** If Kelly survives the suicide mission she descends into this as part of her post traumatic stress.
--> Kelly: [[http://youtu.be/v3OyfP9IXPg I can't get the memories out of my head. Trapped. Suffocating. It's oozing into every pore. Faint sobs echoing in the confined space.]]
* After you break Jack/Subject Zero out of the Purgatory prison ship, you get a message from one of the escaped prisoners you may have talked to on the ship. He thanks you for giving him the chance to escape and mentions that he's going to carve your name onto the body of his next victim. Not forgetting he promised to kill you too because you took a few pot-shots at him. Don't worry, he'll make sure you find your name carved into said chest just before killing you.
** In fact, he escaped, [[UngratefulBastard killing the people who rescued him]] who "didn't weapons check (him) well enough". He then broke into a family's home to send his message to Shepard, and states that [[FridgeHorror the family is about to come home, find said serial killer in their house and then]] "[[KillEmAll It's showtime!]]"
* Purgatory itself qualifies as Nightmare Fuel. A HellholePrison if ever there was one. In fact, the presence of Jack implies that there could be other female prisoners in Purgatory though the only ones seen are male, [[FridgeHorror and you know what would most likely happen if a sex-deprived, psychopathic inmate ran into a weaker prisoner of their preferred gender]].
** Warden Kuril's extortion racket. If you don't pay him to keep your prisoners in jail, he'll release said prisoners... at an unspecified time and place. However safe you think your planet might be with one less criminal, miss one payment and you'll never know if and when that criminal will be out for revenge.
* In Zaeed Massani's loyalty mission, you're given the choice of helping a bunch of workers escape a burning factory and allowing the bad guy to get away, or abandoning the workers to their fate in order to catch the bad guy. If you choose not to help the workers then for the rest of the level you have to listen to them '''screaming in agony as they burn alive'''. Perhaps even more chilling, after a few minutes the horrible screams suddenly just...stop.
** This is also similar to what Saren did in the first game and framed Anderson for. Do this and you are NotSoDifferent from him.
* When you activate Legion, and EDI quotes the Bible when he says that he has 1,183 programs running in him at once. Then, Legion understands it, saying, "Christian Bible. Gospel of Mark. Chapter 5, verse 9. We acknowledge this as an appropriate comparison." The fact that he knew that is one thing. That particular quote "My name is Legion, for we are many," was from a man possessed by about 2000 demons at once. That's right, not only did EDI compare Legion to a demon-possessed man, Legion knew it and totally accepted it as a legitimate comparison.
** There's probably more to that seemingly simple acceptance of the name. For the past 300 years, all geth knew about organics was that they were out to destroy synthetics without a second thought. The name isn't just appropriate due to the idea of one body inhabited by multiple minds; it may be that they know how bad their reputation is to all organics, so they may as well be demons to them.
** The mere fact that the geth have monitored the Citadel races closely enough for Legion to instantly recall specific information from a holy book written by the species that's been active the shortest of all the galactic civilizations, and might well already be to humans then what ancient Mesopotamian religious texts are to us now. That doesn't sound particularly creepy, but then you realize that means the geth probably know everything there is to learn about every Citadel race, and they probably didn't even leave a trace of their espionage at all. Imagine if someone stalked you for decades, learning everything you've ever done, said, or written, and you didn't have a clue that it happened until that person revealed it to you themselves. ParanoiaFuel, indeed.
* [[spoiler:Because Reapers apparently perpetuate their genocidal cycle to reproduce, that would mean Reapers aren't just powerful, they each possess the collected biological and technological might of entire ''civilizations''. "We are each a nation" indeed.]]
** [[spoiler:And as the game heavily implies that the Reapers only choose the strongest civilizations for reproduction and the Protheans/Collectors are still around ...]]
** It's even worse than that: If the age estimates of the Great Rift Valley on Klendagon are accurate, and if [[spoiler: The Reapers really do repeat the cycle approximately every 50,000 years, that means they've got the combined wisdom and technological might of over ''700'' extremely advanced civilizations!]]
*** In ''Mass Effect 3'' we discover that the first Reaper harvest occurred a billion years ago. Assuming that the cycles of extinction occur every 50,000 years, then the number of harvested species - and, therefore, of Reapers in the fleet - reaches a staggering ''20,000!'' 20,000 genocidal, seemingly omnipotent machines coming out of darkness with one goal - exterminate all advanced life. If ''that'' doesn't make you shiver, what will?
* [[spoiler:The Human-Reaper]]. Take The Terminator endoskeleton, which gave James Cameron nightmares. [[spoiler: Now make it black, change its grin to a demonic look and grow it a thousand feet high]]. [[spoiler:Oh, and it's [[PoweredByAForsakenChild powered by liquefied humans]].]]
** Difficult-to-get [[http://youtu.be/CqtAHNQT3-w content]], lines from Legion who remembers when the geth touched Sovereign's minds, strongly suggests that [[spoiler: the melted-down humans aren't just killed and turned into raw materials, but ''[[AndIMustScream still aware]]'']], or at least existent.
* [[spoiler:The incarnation of the Human Reaper we see in the games is just the beginning. The Collector Edition art book reveals a few early production sketches and paintings that range from traditional Reaper to human forms. One looks like Sovereign, turned backwards, with a face and exposed brain underneath the cuttlefish crown, with the many tentacles rearranged to look like tiny, malformed limbs. A more human design looked like what can only be described as a gigantic Husk fetus made from running candle wax, three times as big as what we see in the game. Also, what we saw and fought was just a larva in terms of development. Full grown Reapers are all heavily armored behemoths, many times larger than what we faced. The thing in that chamber would have grown, and have gained the equivalent of muscles, flesh, and lots and lots of armor before it was even fit to be "born". Be you unimpressed or already scared shitless by what made the final product, realize that ''it could have been much worse''.]]
** In addition, the sound it makes when you [[spoiler: shoot the injection tubes]] is somewhere between a baby's cry and a metallic roar.
* One moment that occurs due to a glitch. After shooting the [[spoiler:Human-Reaper's tubes]] and watching it fall, you might see a flash of orange next to Shepard's head in the resulting cut scene. Look carefully. It's the face of the Illusive Man. It's established that he's a control freak who eavesdrops on everyone, and could be watching through their omni-tools, but still. Creepy.
* The vorcha. Their whole ''kill'em all, KILL'EM ALL,'' '''''KILL'EM ALL!!!!!''''' ChaoticEvil schtick (seriously, they want to kill as many innocents on Omega as possible to help the Collectors). However given that they're perceived as being little more than vermin who barely live to see the age of 20 (hard to kill, immune to mass causes of death...yep, space cockroaches), its not surprising. Besides, the AlwaysChaoticEvil [[PlanetOfHats Hat]] they seem to wear is possibly subverted, as there are references to the existence of vorcha miners and engineers. On top of it all, many of those living on Omega are probably poorly educated and extremely distrustful of other races considering the [[ViceCity cutthroat nature of the world]] which they inhabit.
* The science facility that created Jack. A blood-drenched wreck of a building, you can see holding cells that used to be full of kidnapped children, mutant plants now tearing the building apart, Jack's own cell where she was tortured, a giant blood-stain where she killed her first human, and you meet a surviving child who came back and ''wants to rebuild the facility and start everything all over again''. Yikes.
** The room with nothing but a surgical chair and a light over it. "This is a bad place."
*** They even [[MoralEventHorizon made children fight to the death for their entertainment/ to observe the results of their experiments]].
*** The craziest thing about it, which Jack is barely able to wrap her mind around, is that everything, ''everything'' about that facility revolved around Jack's innate biotic abilities, and those experiments were to determine what kind of psychological, pharmacological, and biological environment would be most conducive to enhancing the latent abilities of biotics, without any concern for their well-being. Whatever your place in that hellhole, only your biotic abilities matter, and absolutely nothing else. All the other kids were there to be experimented on, ordered to fight each other, and also to exacerbate Jack's isolation, as shown by the one-way mirror in her room. And all of them were expendable, as only working experiments would be implemented on Jack. As for Jack herself, she would at times be let out of her room... only to fight the other kids, whom she thought were deliberately ignoring her cries from inside her room, and not only that, she was drugged so that she would equate violence with pleasure.
* Prisoner 403. "I can hear the screaming in my head...it's nice." The obvious assumption is that the dude is mentally unstable. Except this is ''Franchise/MassEffect'', where there's a ''worse'' explanation for hearing voices, and who knows if he's always been nuts or if he was once a perfectly normal, sane guy who happened to be working with some kind of mining op that discovered an alien artifact...
* ''Mass Effect 2'' easily tripled the amount of horror in the series. One story mission in particular involves [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1APcaqh0jJs going through the corpse]] of a [[WombLevel millions of years-dead Reaper]]. [[spoiler: [[EldritchAbomination It's still dreaming]]!]] Cue the space zombies.
** Considering what we all know about Indoctrination, the mere fact that Shepard and crew voluntarily entered the body of a Reaper is enough to set the tone. The innards of an EldritchAbomination are every bit as disturbing as you'd expect even without the log entries. [[spoiler:“Chandana said the ship was dead. We trusted him. He was right. But even a dead god can dream. A god — a real god — is a verb. Not some old man with magic powers. It's a force. It warps reality just by being there. It doesn't have to want to. It doesn't have to think about it. It just does. That's what Chandana didn't get. Not until it was too late. The god's mind is gone but it still dreams. He knows now. He's tuned in on our dreams. If I close my eyes I can feel him. I can feel every one of us.”]] EldritchAbomination, indeed.
** There's one video log on the derelict Reaper that also manages to be fairly scary. It shows two Cerberus technicians talking, and one of them starts reminiscing about the day he got married. Then the other one stops him and says he's talking about HIS wedding day. It turns out both of them have the same memories of that wedding, and neither one can now remember whose wedding it actually WAS. In another video log, the team leader Chandana said that the technology may have decayed over the past 37 million years and that he got that information from listening to the pieces.
** To elaborate on the innards, there are ''massive'' passageways that seem to have no end, and an eerie and chilling lighting to them. Even with this, the walls and ceilings all seem to push in giving a constricted and claustrophobic feeling. It manages to make you feel both isolated and trapped at the exact same time. They way they're arranged, [[WombLevel it gives you the feel of walking through the innards of a vast creature, which you are actually doing]].
** One of the researchers is experiencing his colleague's memories as though they were his own. Another one claims to know Chandana's thoughts. Is all of this mere {{Gaslighting}} to turn them all BrainwashedAndCrazy? Or is this reaper priming these humans for their eventual fate - billions of minds interconnected into one consciousness with all individuality completely neutralized? Acting as one Reaper?
*** Which in turn brings the asari siari religion into a whole new terrifying context. All is one, everything is interconnected, all species are intertwined! Based on TheReveal in the third game about the origins of the asari and the Athame doctrine, was the siari religion started by an indoctrinated double agent in the asari uplift team, to dissuade them from following the teachings of their creator Athame, and embracing an interconnected minds philosophy, priming them for reaping and assimilation?
* In Samara's loyalty quest, you have to hunt down Morinth, an [[BlackWidow Ardat-Yakshi]], an asari that kills her partner when they [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow meld]]. Shepard acts as the [[HoneyTrap bait, and goes to her apartment alone]]. Just before she gets ready to do the deed with him/her, her eyes turn black and the lighting is distorted. Asari eyes always turn black when melding, which has always been a bit creepy, but when you know that the asari is getting ready to ''kill'' you, it is absolutely terrifying.
** Not to mention the death scene itself [[ShmuckBait should you decide to romance her]]...
** There's also the incredibly ominous music that plays while you're wandering around her apartment, and the foreboding talks about death she gives while you examine your things. She also asks you to pledge yourself to her as she starts the meld, and going by the dialogue wheel you can't resist her without an extremely high Paragon or Renegade score. [[FridgeHorror which would've meant Shepard's permanent death if Samara hadn't showed up]]. The fact that you're completely unarmed for this mission makes you feel that even Shepard, Badass Extraordinaire isn't going to make it out of this one.
** Something else that's horrible? Liara says in the Ardat-Yakshi monastery that Morinth was just hitting her stride. She's already racked up a huge bodycount, mindraped entire villages to serve as cannon fodder, and can match an asari matriarch with centuries of combat training, ''and she's just getting started''.
** Because MostGamersAreMale, the concept of an attractive alien women having her way with people might lose some of its initial impact. But from the genderless Asari perspective, Morinth is a super-powered serial killer/rapist.
*** Not to mention to the rest of the galaxy. Asari are well known for their sex appeal, and the indescribable experience that melding with one brings. Morinth takes that stereotype, and turns it into something horrifyingly perverted.
* Speaking of Samara, she mentions fighting a Spectre; now that in itself is odd, but what's even odder is who she fought: Nihlus. According to Samara he [[PoliceBrutality killed an unarmed civilian]], and Samara attacked him because of this, but eventually had to let him go because he [[KickTheDog threatened to kill more unless she let him go]]. Now, one could say the unarmed civilian was a [[BitchInSheepsClothing unarmed criminal]], but it's still worrisome that your mentor-to-be would have been a killer of civilians.
* The justicar code in general. If you uphold the law, you've got nothing to fear from a justicar. But if you break the law, you're screwed. [[TheUnfettered Justicars won't stop until you're brought in.]] Even if you distract her, like Nihlus did, as mentioned above, she will hunt you down with patience and precision. And if you fight back, no amount of begging or pleading will save you.
-->'''Samara:''' If I must kill a man because he has done wrong, do I really wish to know that [[IHaveAFamily he is a devoted father?]]
* There are the Husks, which no longer make those electric explosion things, now they just try to beat you to death like normal zombies. Then there are abominations, which are Husks that are ON FIRE and EXPLODE. Then there are Scions, which are three husks melded together into a massive walking turret, and then the motherfucking Praetorians. Praetorians are beetle-like flying things that can also land and fight in melee combat- when they do this, they are almost impossible to destroy. And guess what? They are made by fusing THIRTY HUSKS TOGETHER. THIRTY. Worse, their armor acts as a sort of container- it can open and close. When it opens, you get to see the thirty Husk's heads. Staring at you.
* Failing Joker's mini-mission near the end of the main story. [[spoiler: Joker gets spotted by a Scion, panics, and falls down. You're then treated to a close-up shot of the Scion from Joker's perspective before a massive hulking claw reaches towards you, followed by a gasp from Joker and a Game Over screen. You get another one if you get too close to the Praetorian, which looms over Joker and opens up to show him the husk heads, leaps at him, then you hear a gasp and a stabbing sound followed by a Game Over screen.]]
* Listening to Joker's frantic repetition of "oh shit, oh shit, oh shitshitshit..." as [[spoiler:the Collectors swarm through the ''Normandy'' and haul the surviving crew away to a fate potentially worse than death.]] Considering the number of horrors he's [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu shot up]] and [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu flipped off]] over his career, anything that could rattle Joker that badly is some bad juju indeed. Except that he did all that ''as a pilot''.
** [[spoiler:The screams of the crew members as they're dragged off by the Collectors - particularly Kelly - are just too horrific for words.]]
* Towards the end, after [[spoiler:you return to find the Collectors have kidnapped your entire crew with the exception of Joker, you're left to wander the halls of the Normandy, and there's ''not a single man or woman'' left on the ship. After spending the entire game getting used to the ambient noise and touching tidbits of background banter from your crew members, and getting to know others like Yeoman Chambers and Gabby and Ken, it's ''damn eerie'' to wander the ship in absolute silence]].
** And if you delay your final mission too long, [[spoiler:it will stay that way for the rest of the epilogue]].
* The inside of a Collector cruiser. The [[spoiler:Protheans]] probably didn't build their ships like that...not to mention the thousands of pods hanging from the ceiling. As you see the first lot, it sort of hits you how bad the Collectors are, but then when you step out into that chamber the haunting feeling of knowing everybody on Earth could be transported in that leviathan rears its ugly head.
** Get to the part where you first find the pods on the ceiling and EDI will tell you that the people inside probably died when the ship lost power. If you have a sniper rifle, aim it at some of the darker pods on the ceiling. You can see the bodies. And they're ''twitching''. Dead, EDI? You sure?
** Tali's line sums up the realization better than the wordier descriptions offered by the other party members: -moment of awed silence- "...[[OhMyGods Keelah]]"
** Made all the more chilling by your squadmates pointing out that the Collectors could stick every man, woman, and child living in the Terminus Systems in those pods and '''still''' have most of them left over. On '''one. Single. Collector. Ship.''' Now recall the Collector Base at the beginning of the suicide mission. Note how small the ship is in comparison to the base and consider how many more must be in there. We only hear of about 3-4 separate Collector ships out and about over the course of the game. That means that for all the havoc the Collectors wreaked on human colonies around the galaxy, ''they were holding back.'' Additionally, the suicide mission implies that [[spoiler:one Collector base = one construction facility for one new Reaper.]] Given the final scenes of the game's ending, how many more bases you suppose there might be?
** Before [[spoiler:the fighting starts]], someone or something is still out there, SCREAMING. It doesn't help that a scream comes from nearby right as you are told [[spoiler:that the ship has apparently been stalking you.]]
** The soundtrack is very eerie as well, with a musical sting which happens only when you come out of the chamber and see billions of pods lining the inside walls of the ship at the same time as your squadmate's comment.
* The [[spoiler:Oculus]] you encounter during the SuicideMission are pretty terrifying already, considering [[spoiler:their beams tear holes through the Normandy even with the armor upgrades]], but the really scary part? Cut content reveals that that they aren't automated security machines. They have pilots. Collector drones, who have been ''taken apart until they are just a nervous system'', wired into machinery and suspended in a gel that keeps it from getting damaged in the vacuum of space.
* The AndIMustScream situation that the Collectors put people in. The Seeker swarms come in and freeze you. You fall to the ground, conscious but unmoving, and ''you can see them'' as they come towards you and stick you in pods. You're ''stuck'' like that until they [[spoiler:'''[[CruelAndUnusualDeath melt you down for genetic materials]]''']].
* Shepard [[TheDreaded themself for their enemies.]] Seriously, [[MookHorrorShow look at it from someone else's point of view]]: By the end of ''ME 2'' Shepard has semi bulletproof skin, indestructible bones, heals at absurd rates and is strong enough to ''beat down'' a ''Geth Prime''. This means that Shepard can probably ''punch a hole'' in a shielded and armored synthetic that is arguably a walking ''tank''. And no matter what Shepard's class is, they terrify their enemies; let's take a quick look, shall we?
** '''Soldier:''' The enemy in front of you is heavily armored and has more weapons than you've ever seen someone carry. You and your platoon start to open fire, but in hardly [[BulletTime a fraction of a second]], the soldier pulls out their assault rifle and sweeps it through the air, firing wildly. You laugh, thinking they've just wasted their ammo, but suddenly there's a number of dull thuds behind you. You don't have to look; your HUD tells you your squad all just flatlined. And Shepard's just finished reloading. It doesn't help that Soldier Shepard is so pumped up with genetic modifications that they could beat Iron Man with their left arm and Captain America with their right. It's a wonder the people you punch still have heads afterwards.
*** You see all these weapons and think all those bullets aren't worth shit and you and your squad of more than twenty guys can just flank him and kill him without any trouble. He shoots a few times. You look to your right, and one of your teammates is screaming and trying to put out his flaming armor, and he dies still screaming horribly. Your team's engineer walks past you, and you breathe, assuming his shields will surely help him and your team to at least make the guy waste some of his bullets. Before you could even finish that thought, the engineer's shields fizzle out like they were nothing, and now he's convulsing, paralyzed and unable to even raise his gun before he's put down with one last shot. In frustration, some of your other teammates try to bum-rush him, but then you see streaks of white on their bodies, and notice they're slowing down, and then they're practically frozen on the spot, and a few shots is all it takes for your former teammates to just shatter like glass. You're stunned by what you've just seen, so much so that you don't even notice that the guy's already rushing at you, and the last thing you see is the butt of his rifle charging straight to your head.
** '''Vanguard:''' Your band of mercs ambushes this stupid guy, laying down some serious suppressing fire. Suddenly, your companion freezes solid and, in a flash of blue light, the guy you ambushed turns into a ''blazing blue comet of death'' and rams into your friend, sending him flying through the air until he slams into a wall and shatters. The krogan on your team starts to charge the guy, but he swivels on the balls of his feet, so fast you hardly see it happen, and there's a sound like a cannon as half of your buddy's face just ''disappears''. Then the guy turns to you, pumping the slide of a shotgun ''built exclusively for krogan'' as a blue biotic corona flares up around him/her.
*** Taken UpToEleven in the third game, where a Vanguard can easily be the Reaper's worst nightmare. Shepard hurtling at them like an ''[[VideoGame/AngryBirds Angry Bird]]'' and playing ping pong with their corpses? Now s/he also uses Nova; which wipes out anything within five meters, and Shockwave: a room clearing biotic attack that even [[ThatOneBoss Banshees]] cannot cope with. Shepard didn't defeat the Reapers, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere they just packed up and went home.]]
** '''Engineer:''' You shoot at them, and your weapons don't fire. They shoot at you, and your shields don't work. Your armor is burned away by ''napalm''. You try to hide, but they send a drone that electrifies you and forces you out into the open. The mechs you brought along suddenly gain kinetic barriers and start shooting at their masters. Your friend ducks out of cover to flank him and suddenly they fall to the ground, clutching their head and screaming as blood oozes out of their eyes and ears. Then you [[HarmlessFreezing freeze solid]], the monster points a pea shooter at you, and you [[LiterallyShatteredLives shatter like glass]].
** '''Infiltrator:''' Your platoon is walking along their patrol. It's your turn on point. Nothing's really out of the ordinary, but you think you hear a far off gunshot. Confused, you wave your squad forward. Then you hear the sound again, closer - but this time a spray of blood hits you. You turn back to find that two of your men's heads are just ''gone''. You all dive for cover but another of your men dies, shot in the face even as he dove for a rock. But you saw where the shot came from. You turn and open fire as the distant sniper ducks back under cover. Your team coordinates fire on the spot, keeping the damn sniper pinned as you advance towards their position. Then there's the sound of a sniper rifle, and another one of your friends' heads bursts open like a ripe melon. Your men start firing on the new position and you force them to coordinate to keep both of the snipers pinned down. There's another shot and someone else dies and you can't find the sniper. Everyone scatters, firing wildly. Terrified, you and a companion hide in a small rocky alcove, huddling together out of fear. You watch on your HUD as one by one every other member of your patrol goes dark until it's just the two of you. Where's the sniper? How many are there? Then you hear a sharp crack as your friend's neck snaps, and someone suddenly blurs into existence beside you, the barrel of a pistol jammed against the side of your head. To summarize: You and everyone you care about/work with could be killed, and you'd ''never even see who was doing it''. (And if you get the weapon specialization s/he can carry a sniper rifle ''designed to pierce tanks'' that will shatter the arms of the average human who fires it and use it on ''normal infantry''.)
** '''Sentinel:''' Your shields fail before a wave of their hand. Your barrier explodes around you. Your weapons jam as you try to fire. Your armor distorts and rips itself apart. They knock you out of cover ''with a thought''. And no matter what you do, no matter how many times you shoot them, no matter how many people shoot, no matter what you shoot them with, ''they just won't die''.
** '''Adept:''' To try and put this into perspective: think about how much Jack terrifies everyone that knows about her. Think about what she can do for a long moment. Got it? Good. An Adept Shepard is arguably as strong a biotic ''if not stronger'' than Jack. They can create small black holes ''with a thought'' repeatedly and with relative ''ease''. Hide behind cover, and a blue blurry bullet of energy curves around to send you floating through the air, ''completely helpless''. One of Shepard's team members might pick you off...or Shepard might send another blue blur to slam into you, throwing you off the edge.
** Paragon Shepard does not care for your past sins, s/he forgives all. Shepard offers job opportunities for those who get the work done. Paragon Shepard may offer mercy and help for your past problems, and secure your loyalty. [[GoodIsNotSoft But not for one moment think s/he does not have you down his/her sights.]] Any traitor that has met the Cutscene Pistol of Doom will either back down or die. [[TheAce Shepard always wins]], and his/her crew knows that. Offer one hand, arm the other indeed. Not only that, but if you refuse to back down, you will suffer for your sins. Paragon Shepard will tear apart your unethical research, stop whatever you were doing, and leave you to rot in jail for doing it.
*** Add to that how ThePowerOfFriendship can become NightmareFuel. Picture Shepard as one hell of a [[NiceGuy Nice Guy\Girl.]] Now think how s/he has super soldiers, super powerful magic elves, tech experts, assassins and MechaMooks. Vigilantes, [[BloodKnight Blood Knights,]] master thieves, mercenaries and psychotic criminals. [[UndyingLoyalty Think how they are all willing to fight for Shepard.]] Then think how monumentally '''''screwed''''' you are. [[spoiler: Just ask Brooks and Clone!Shepard.]] The archives raid is a perfect example of this. Look at the character examples below, then picture most of them gunning for you. [[CurbStompBattle At the same time.]]
** Renegade Shepard, however, has no need for such petty mercies--if you so much as breathe in his/her general direction in the wrong way, s/he will '''kill you'''. Remember: you either fall in line... or you get crushed under his/her heel.
** Also, think about the above class scenarios then add in some of the kinds of armor and weapons Shepard can use, namely the Recon Hood, the Collector Armor and Assault Rifle, and the Terminus armor and Blackstorm (A.K.A. the Black Hole Gun). The Soldier scenario would only be more terrifying as what looks like a Human-Collector hybrid holding a bizarre three-pronged organic gun-thing mows down your friends, the cold emotionless expression of the Recon hood behind the barrel of that pistol for the Infiltrator scenario, and the Terminus Armor holding the Blackstorm no matter what the class. The Cain just goes without saying because even if you didn't see it hit, you very likely heard that explosion and, if you were talking to a buddy on the radio, getting nothing but static at about the same time.
** Just to add fuel to the fire, consider the options your Shepard can get with Advanced Training. Imagine the description of the soldier, but now s/he has the ability to drain the very life essence out of your friends with a thought. Or an Adept that's able to not only easily take down your anti-biotic shielding, but use that to steadily boost their own shielding while you hopelessly unload round after round into them as they get ready for their bone-crushing Throw to cool down.
** Shepard and the ''Normandy'' combined are potentially horrific for Harbinger. So you're abducting another human colony when this human in battle armor starts killing your troops. Not only is s/he immune to the seeker swarms, but s/he looks ''exactly'' like that Shepard whose ship you blew up two years ago so you wouldn't have to worry about him/her. S/He actually manages to activate the defenses, forcing you to withdraw. Later, you set a trap for him/her. Not only do you confirm that it's Shepard, but you catch a glimpse of his/her ship. It looks like his/her old one - didn't you destroy it? Finally, you're at your home base when that ship attacks. It's almost identical in appearance to the one you destroyed... only twice as big, and packing a lot more firepower. It shrugs off your initial attack before blasting your ship to pieces with what looks like a miniature version of ''Nazara'''s weapon. Finally, Shepard boards your base, takes out your unfinished human Reaper ''on foot'', then destroys the base, along with all your work. In short, you killed this human, obliterated his/her ship and scattered his/her crew throughout the entire galaxy. And it was all just a temporary setback. As Garrus noted, Harbinger killed Shepard, and all it seemed to do was [[OhCrap piss him/her off]].
*** For reference, [[EldritchAbomination Sovereign]] ''stayed'' dead. If you threw all the things it took to stop it at Shepard, s/he may not survive, but damn it, ''s/he'd survive not surviving.'' So s/he's essentially unstoppable, ''[[OhCrap and you just shot in his/her general direction]]''.
* Several of your squadmates may be this to your enemies, too. Let's count the ways:
** '''Jacob:''' You're taking on Shepard when you see they've got some Cerberus guy with them, and decide that killing him would be easier than killing Shepard. But instead of him going down like a Vorcha or varren, he doesn't die, his kinetic barriers just getting stronger with every shot you try to sink into him. Then, he returns fire, [[KillItWithFire causing you to burst into flame.]] The last sensation you feel is the one of flying toward the barrel of his shotgun after being hit with a biotic Pull, on fire and slowly dying. "Gravity's one mean mother, huh?"
** '''Miranda:''' While trading shots with Shepard you are alerted to the fact that your shields just ''died''. While trying to determine if your shields really ''did'' die, you feel the sensation of being lifted up, before being slammed down onto the ground, '''hard'''. Broken, battered, and bruised, you get up and watch a Cerberus Operative walk up to you, take out one of your squadmates with her pistol, and finish you off with a Warp Field.
** '''Zaeed:''' You're blind drunk and ready for a fight when suddenly you see Shepard and, in your foolhardy delusions of grandeur, decide to take them on. Before you can even draw your pistol, however, a concussive shot staggers you while you feel several bullets shred your shields to pieces. Looking to your left, you see none other than Zaeed Massani, interstellar bounty hunter extraordinaire, standing at Shepard's side, an old Avenger in his hands. And then, before you can even return fire, he then pulls out a grenade full of napalm and nonchalantly tosses it at you, ensuring your last few moments are spent screaming in agony as you burn to death.
** '''Kasumi:''' You and Shepard are trading shots on Illium when you notice a grenade at your feet. Before you can react, the grenade explodes [[SensoryAbuse into a litany of loud sound and bright lights]], causing you to stagger around blindly while someone overloads your shields. Then, as you finally come to, you watch as a Japanese woman appears out of thin air and guts you with an Omniblade.
** '''Garrus:''' As you and your fellow Blue Suns mercs pin Shepard under heavy fire, one of your squadmates' heads pops like a cherry tomato. Looking around, you don't see anyone besides your squadmates, you, and Shepard, when a concussive round knocks another squadmate off his feet. Looking toward the source of the shot, you see a turian dressed in a familiar-looking blue outfit, aiming his sniper rifle right at your head. And just before he kills you off, it dawns on you [[spoiler:that Archangel isn't dead... [[OhCrap He's working with Shepard]].]]
*** Garrus' tendency to put people down in sadistically ironic ways is both hilarious and disturbing when you think about it. That takes a lot of time and effort to kill someone in an appropriate manner.
*** The fact that he's such NightmareFuel to bands of bloodthirsty mercenary groups that said groups, who usually hate each other's guts, had teamed up to take him on, were pooling all their resources, and were effectively in a stalemate with ''one guy with a sniper rifle'', should tell you everything you need to know.
** '''Mordin:''' You and your fellow Blood Pack mercs are dealing with Shepard when you spot a salarian scientist. Salarians are squishy--not even finger deep and you've cut their spines in half. But as you prepare to charge him, hopefully while your pack-mates are keeping Shepard occupied, the pack-mate with you snap-freezes and shatters with a well-placed pistol shot, while your vorcha bodyguards spontaneously burst into flame and are mowed down with SMG Rounds. Then, a flash of horrible, intense, and ''relentless'' pain overloads your body, and you watch helplessly as the salarian lowers his pistol at you. The last words you ever hear are, "[[BeigeProse Thought I was harmless]], [[DeadlyDoctor did you]]?"
** '''Grunt:''' The Blue Suns has sent you to deal with some rowdy colonists who won't pay up on their extortion racket. Nothing too bad, right? That's when you see Shepard. But rather than panic, you decide to take them on, ''mano e mano'', when you realize they've got a krogan with them. And when you try and take that krogan down with your shotgun, he screams, "'''Feel the Blood Rage!'''" and charges you while a BeehiveBarrier forms around his hardening body, sending you flying off into the distance. As you hit the ground and get back up, you then watch the krogan nonchalantly walk up to you, pull out a massive shotgun, and shoot you point blank.
*** Not to mention, that krogan's ''young''. He's not even fully ''mature'' yet.
** '''Jack:''' You're on a remote world, doing some more risqué operations when you come across Shepard. Panicking, you tell everyone to pack up and move out before they catch you and kill you all when a Shockwave sends you flying. Dusting yourself off from the impact of hitting the ground, you turn around and see a skinny woman whose tattoos cover more skin than the leather she's wearing. You aim down your sights to score a kill when a hail of shotgun rounds from the girl kills one of your squadmates and another Shockwave from the same girl sends you through the air again. As you get up again, you see Shepard mowing down your Mechs and squadmates while the girl sends one of your friends off a nearby cliff with a biotic Throw. Then, she turns, sees that you're still alive, and sends you upward with a biotic Pull, using her shotgun to finish you off. You barely recall the only words you heard her say as she and Shepard first see you and your squad, "Hello, dead people!" You'd be laughing if you weren't choking on your own blood.
** '''Tali:''' You've got orders to shake down a small colony when you come across Shepard. ''Okay, I've just got to keep myself from being noticed and I'll be fine'', you think to yourself. Then you notice a quarian nearby. Thinking that the quarian will be infinitely easier to kill than Shepard, especially one still on Pilgrimage, you peep out of cover and level your sights on her, only for a painful electric shock to cause you to pop up from out of cover. Turning around, you see a violet combat drone eagerly waiting for you to go back under, which you quickly dispose of... but not before realizing that one of the Mechs you've brought along for this shakedown has gained kinetic barriers and is now firing at you and the other Mechs. As you fall to the ground, blood pooling around you, you watch helplessly as the quarian nonchalantly walks up to you, pulls out a shotgun that looks like it's more at home with the geth than the quarians, and say the last words you'll ever hear: "Keelah se'lai."
** '''Samara:''' You're trading shots with Shepard when you see an Asari Justicar by his side. ''Isn't she one of those die-hard justice lovers who like to kill anyone who breaks the law?'' you ask yourself. Deciding it doesn't matter, you decide to pop out of cover only to realize your squadmates and friends are dead and you're slowly starting to feel weak and sleepy. Checking your Omni-tool, you notice that your vitals are slowly deteriorating, and when you pop out of cover again, you realize that the Justicar's using her biotics against you by ''leeching away your life into hers.'' The last thing you feel is the shattering of every bone in your body as you hit the ground after being sent flying by a Shockwave.
** '''Thane:''' You're in a firefight with Shepard when you're hit by a Warp Field. Looking around to see who sent it, you see a drell at Shepard's side, still mildly glowing from a recent use of biotics. Deciding that the drell will be the easiest target to deal with, it only dawns on you that ''he'' was the one responsible for the Warp Field when he sends you flying with a biotic Throw before finishing you with a few precision rounds from his pistol.
*** Alternatively, you'll be in your office, going about your illegal business, when all of a sudden, the guards outside your door are dead. Then the guards inside your room are dead. You radio the rest of your security force and realize that everyone but the janitors have either been shot or had their necks snapped. Then you feel hands grasping the sides of your head and violently jerking to the right. The last sensation you have is of a drell starting in on a prayer of forgiveness.
** [[spoiler:'''Legion:''']] Let's say you are this poor, unfortunate Merc squad. You see Shepard. Oh, no. S/He's a really bad Human. Then imagine the first thing you hear is a robotic "Hostiles Spotted" in a dull emotionless tone. Standing next to this heavily armed human is a ''geth''. Speaking ''English''. The butchers of Eden Prime, the ravagers of the Citadel, the besiegers of Feros. The most horrifying enemy the galaxy has ever known (since you and most of the rest of the galaxy don't know about the Reapers) and this man/woman has one ''working with them''. But it's not so bad, it's just one lone geth, right? No smarter than a varren? Suddenly, it pops one of your squad mate's heads like a cherry with its own [[{{BFG}} Widow Anti-Material Rifle]]. Oh, it's smarter than a varren, all right. It's a cold, logical death machine that only sees you as an obstacle to an objective, nothing more than a statistic in a combat data projection. Then it aims its Anti-Tank Cannon. ''Right'' ''[[KilledMidSentence at--]]''
** [[spoiler:'''Morinth:''']] You're trading shots with Shepard when you see an Asari Justicar by his side. But it's okay! She's on your side! So you happily turn around, mowing down your squadmates left and right, not realizing what's going on until either one of your squadmates manages to kill you or she bids you come to her, at which point [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the full force of what's happened hits you like a train]] and causes you to drop dead, either through bleeding out or by the revelation that the Justicar [[spoiler:is actually an [[HornyDevils Ardat-Yakshi]]; something you only learn when she looks into your eyes while hers turn deathly black, before saying "embrace eternity" and [[DeathBySex overloading your nervous system]].]]
** '''Liara:''' You've arranged for a meeting with one of the Shadow Broker's associates to get some intelligence for your next mercenary operation and go to a back alley on Illium to meet up with him when an asari shows up. Thinking she's a prostitute, you try to seduce her and invite her back to your place for some drinks after you've gotten your intel from the Shadow Broker, only to learn that she's the rep the Shadow Broker's sent to help you out. After giving you the intel, you thank her, and then decide that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness she's outlived her usefulness]] and that the Shadow Broker [[WeHaveReserves won't care for one representative going dark]] and start firing at her. The next thing you know, you're frozen in place, the asari's biotics radiating off of her body like blue fire and her pistol aimed directly at you. And just before she shoots you, she reveals the grim truth to you: [[spoiler:''She's'' the Shadow Broker, '''[[OhCrap and you just shot in her general direction.]]''']]
* There's an assignment where you go to a mine after picking it up on a scan. The first indication that something is really wrong? You find a datapad on a box close to the entrance. Know what it says? "If you can read this, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! NOW!" This mission just gets creepier and creepier as you work your way through the winding, claustrophobic mine tunnels, hearing the shrieks and moans of the husks echoing from deep underground. Guess we know what happened to the miners and researchers...
** This entire assignment plays like a zombie survival horror game: the mine is abandoned, you find the above ApocalypticLog entry, you occasionally have to pick off a few errant husks as you travel deeper, [[NothingIsScarier you hear their moans and shrieks, but you can't tell where they are or how many there are from the echoing]], and then right when you get to the spot you have to be on to complete the mission and you think it's almost over...BAM. A goddamn ''swarm'' of husks comes out of nowhere and blindsides you, leaving you scrambling just to survive, let alone kill ''all'' of them. And to make it even better, half the fucking things ARE ON FIRE.
* While we never actually ''see'' how batarians treat their slaves, we certainly hear the details of it. The conditions of the slaves are horrific that it drove a seasoned soldier who witnessed a batarian slave run to become a traumatized, alcoholic wreck. And then there's what they did to Talitha...
* The Derelict Reaper is an extremely creepy playing environment. It's effectively a giant corpse of a dead mecha-god that continues to radiate remnants of its evil will. You will come across [[ApocalypticLog Apocalyptic Logs]] that contain messages from a science team sent to study it but went insane, speaking how "even dead gods can dream", and sharing each other's memories. Add in dozens of Husks, cyber-zombies they turned themselves into attacking you at the same time in one of the most intense battle sequences in the game, and you have the makings of the most disturbing and frightening part of the game.
* Try picking the wrong biotic to accompany your squad through the seeker swarms in the [[AnyoneCanDie suicide mission]]. The ''screams of agony'' (oh, Lord, Tali, Garrus, and Thane) will echo in your brain. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job getting one of Shepard's beloved squad killed]].
* "No carrier, no carrier, no carrier, no-..." Now think about this. When Legion says that, he's trying to upload all his memories and programs (which are the actual geth [not the physical form]) and realizing that he's too far away from a mass relay to get everything he has learned and experienced back to his people, which is the most important part of his society, and realizing that all of the over 1000 ''people'' within him would die there.
* [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/N7:_Abandoned_Research_Station Jarrahe Station]]. A space station where the VI went nuts. The creepiest part is that there are no enemies. A fight would have at least helped ease the tension. Absolutely everyone is dead, many of them bloodily. The ones in the plasma venting section were clearly killed by it, but the rest? One of the datapads mentions trying to prevent the VI from killing them. You and your crew are using breather masks, so apparently there's no atmosphere in at least part of the station. The only other clue to ''how'' happens when you go into the living quarters and the VI [[http://youtu.be/3NwLQWQG3iI locks you in]].
--> "The living area doors have been closed to quarantine a threat to this station. Advise intruders to engage [[DrivenToSuicide self-destruct procedures]] to avoid death by starvation."
** Look around while you're in the living quarters: there's ''half'' a human body lying in one of the rooms. There are no mechs around (if there were, they'd presumably be trying to kill you.) ''What the hell did that?''
* The end of the prologue. Shepard, twisting in terror (and likely pain) due to a suit breach, trying desperately to be able to fix it. Watching Shepard just... flailing and helpless is surprisingly creepy.
** Imagine being Shepard at that moment. Paragon Shepard was just getting ready to get the geth mop-up over with so that with the help of the human Councillor, they could start preparing for the Reapers and getting the rest of the galaxy involved as well, only to be stopped short by an (at the time) unknown enemy. Renegade Shepard is just plain seething in frustration at surviving so much hell and stepping on a lot of toes to get things done their way, and then Collectors just go and destroy their ship, and just the idea of not being able to get revenge and make sure those damned Reapers will not destroy the galaxy...
* The "duct rats" of the Citadel are mentioned in a throwaway conversation during Thane's loyalty mission, but they have some sad stories. Children so poor they play in the duct-works of the Citadel, which nobody really understands since no living race built it. So, from time to time, these kids get crushed, chewed up by fans, dumped into boiling hot liquids, fall into protein vats to be fed to other residents of the Citadel, or even get ''ejected into space''. They also just vanish sometimes. It's suspected the keepers might have something to do with it.
* [[VillainOverride Harbinger]], especially on Insanity difficulty. Imagine it from your character's perspective. You just finished fighting off a wave of Collector assassins on some moving platforms. Your ammo is nearly depleted and your team is exhausted, only for you to hear in a deep, flanging voice, "[[AC:I will direct this personally]]." That enemy you thought was taken care of? Its flesh starts sloughing off and its body glows with yellow light. You shoot at it, but the shields are too strong. Harbinger hurls a supremely powerful biotic singularity at you, enough to rip through your shields just as you take cover, and while you take him out moments later with seconds to spare...you hear his voice, again, from across the room. He's coming for you. He's tougher than anything you've EVER fought, and he'll ''never,'' '''''ever''''' stop coming. Until you're dead. Worse still are some of his lines when you kill his current body, just reaffirming how utterly unstoppable he is. Like [[AC:'''"I WILL FIND YOU AGAIN."''']]
** It's even more horrifying if you imagine that Shepard, being AFatherToHisMen would never risk the teams safety in any circumstance or ask them to sacrifice themselves in order to save Shepard's life. Imagine now realizing that Harbinger isn't interested in your team, to him, they are simply an irritating obstacle between him and you, something to swat aside. And if he defeats them, he won't even take them alive, he doesn't care about them at all. ''He just wants you''.
* The very end: You've blown up a Human-Reaper with weapons meant to kill squishy organics, wiped out the Collectors, and (maybe) given your fallen crew members a hero's funeral. All is well. That is, until you see the thousands of EldritchAbomination mecha-gods fast approaching the edge of the galaxy. Which is even worse if [[spoiler:Shepard dies at the end]].
* The Project Overlord DLC has a bunch of minor scenes, creeping through a 'dormant' geth ship, fighting through station after station of green tinted robots wading through corpses, a smoke filled geothermal plant that's collapsing around you, and all through it you keep seeing this green face of the out of control VI, [[SensoryAbuse making the most ungodly sound you will ever hear in your life]].
** And all of that is just a precursor to what awaits you in Atlas Station.
*** Rogue VI: [unintelligible sounds] = [[spoiler:"''QUIET, PLEASE!'' '''MAKE IT STOP!'''"]]
---->"[[TearJerker The square root of 912.04 is 30.2... it all seemed harmless...]]"
*** And then the distorted elevator music from ''[=ME1=]'' playing, cycling from sped up to slowed down, after a computer voice says that it is there to "relieve stress." Did we mention that this is on a [[spoiler:crashed geth ship full of inert HomicideMachines?]]
** The whole thing is creepy as hell, but it all goes UpToEleven [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp-Z69NHlHM when]] [[spoiler:you touch the console, glow green, and are sucked into what is pretty much the Matrix, while your companions frantically try to pry open the now-sealed doors. You then find out the REAL story behind the VI, topped off with a hearty helping of BodyHorror. You know the bad guy is really bad when the ''Paragon'' interrupt is to pistol-whip him]].
*** [[spoiler: What was done to David goes ''far'' beyond how humans were plugged into the Matrix. Plugs that go entirely through his arms. A huge neck brace with even more plugs. Suspended in the air. With two ''thick'' tubes jammed in his mouth and presumably down his throat. Eye lids held open for no discernible reason! And conscious the entire time, ''screaming''. Just...[[http://i.imgur.com/2DpofPN.png?1 look at the poor man]]]].
*** [[spoiler:[[http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/4409/overlordv.jpg No wonder he was saying]] "[[AndIMustScream Quiet... please... make it stop..."]]]]
** Remember the face in the last level? It's STARING AT YOU THE WHOLE TIME. Also, those security cameras with the green lights? That's the VI watching you for the entire mission.
** Try reusing the elevator when you get to the bottom. The doors open, and the elevator's ''gone''. The VI says something like, "Brakes not responding," and the elevator slams down the shaft and shatters. And it's never stated, but subtly implied - you are now trapped in an underground facility, with no communications, at the mercy of an insane VI.
** The NonstandardGameOver, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygeLJ64FxUc which shows EDI getting possessed by the VI]]
** Shepard's got enough cybernetic implants to be hacked. Let me repeat that. Shepard can be ''[[BodyHorror hacked]]''.
* The sidequest where you must track down the mercenaries with a captured cargo ship. Everything seems normal, the team goes forward, killing mercs and search the ship. Then you go to the med bay and see the withered corpse on the inspection table. Okay, unsettling. When you move forward you encounter a whole pile of same corpses. Given the bad reputation of the mercs, it isn't hard to see that they obviously tortured the former crew to death one by one. Brrh...
* The "Warp" Biotic ability. Think about what it must be like to be broken down at the molecular level by someone's thoughts. Then there's the Lift and Push abilities. Imagine being lifted high into the air, then thrown against a wall at bone-shattering speeds. Slam combines them both into one happy package!
* Let's just makes this simple and just say the Reapers fit this trope. Ridiculously powerful [[SapientShip sentient starships]], that have been causing mass extinction for AT LEAST 37 million years, in order to melt down organics to make new Reapers or destroy their free will through the horrifying practice of indoctrination. Even when ''dead'', they can be dangerous for "a dead god can still dream." When one was destroyed, it took nearly an entire fleet with it, and it wasn't even trying to fight back. They also have brainwashed people as allies and their troops are corpses reanimated by cybernetics and nanotechnology.
* Jacob's loyalty mission. Miranda lets slip about a ship his father served on sending a distress signal, but the crash was ten years ago. Going to investigate, Shepard and Jacob slowly learn that his father took command during the crash and spent the next ten years turning the place into Richard Laymon's ''Island'', eventually exiling and killing the men and keeping the women as sex slaves, using the planet's native flora-which causes dementia if eaten-to keep them under control.
** The ending's worth mentioning. As Jacob confronts his father, Shepard notices a male, crazed, standing there like a zombie. Soon he's joined by several more. S\he points them out to the third member of the squad, who will [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] what they will do to Jacob's father if Shepard chooses to abandon him.
** Upping the creepy factor is the partial crew log of a male survivor who obviously hadn't been forced to eat the local vegetation yet.
--->'''Survivor:''' [static] ... always said no. She even threatened a report if I didn't stop sending messages. But now she's so innocent. They all are. And that look she gives when she smiles... It's sure easier now. What's the harm? We're stuck here any-- [static]
** Records of [[http://youtu.be/cFKO9S-Ty-E one of the women being affected]], realizing with horror that she can't remember someone's name or face. Bad enough to have this happen, but to be ''conscious of'' losing yourself?
** One last dose of horror. The female crew members had been used as sex slaves. Certainly one or more must have gotten pregnant in the ten years, and yet [[WouldHurtAChild there are no children around]].
* Remember the Collector Harbinger berates after Shepard wins? He releases control just in time for it to have a last look at Harbinger and watch the blast coming to kill it. Though this might be a release, all things considered. It's more of a look of 'Daddy? Where are you?' the kind of look a child makes when they've been abandoned before realization fully sets in. Which is all the more horrifying - the Collectors as a species know nothing BUT Indoctrination. They have NEVER in their existence been free. It never even knew what it was to be Prothean.
* Some of the powers for the enemies. For instance:
** '''Neural Shock''': The salarian who won't shut up, he should be an easy kill for you, right? Next thing you know, you're spasming on the ground, feeling the worst pain of your life. The last thing you see is the salarian inhaling, and aiming his SMG at you...
** '''Slam''': The bitch on the field, shouldn't she be in a beauty pageant? Those are your last thoughts, as she screams at you, "Fall and die!" and you leave the ground. You hover in the air, thinking what the hell is going on? Then the ground rushes to meet your face.
** '''Shadow Strike''': What's up with the Japanese girl in the hood? You aim your gun at her and pull the trigger... but she disappears. What the? Where'd she go? Then an omni-blade cleaves into your back, dropping you on the ground.
** '''Dominate''': Oh, crap, that's a Justicar! She waves her hand, and... hold on, the asari's your ally. But if she's an ally, [[MookFaceTurn then...]] you spin your gun around, and unload a clip into the turian behind you. Wait a minute... [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone why am I doing this?]]
** '''Stasis''': The asari? What could she-? What's happening? Why can't I move? [[OhCrap OH SHIT,]] SHE'S COMING RIGHT [[KilledMidSentence FOR-]]
** '''Inferno Grenade''': That old merc? What could he do? [[TemptingFate He couldn't hit sh-]] suddenly, your entire team is on fire. He just laughs at your "goddamn antics", and sweeps a blazing M-8 Avenger in your general direction.
** '''AI Hacking''': Is that a quarian? What the hell is a quarian doing on the battlefield? What's she doing, anyw- suddenly there's a blast of gunfire from behind you. You turn around, and one of your own mechs is taking aim at your face...
** '''Carnage''': That krogan's not close enough for a charge attack. You feel a bit more at ease, thinking you can take him at a distance when one of your buddies is ripped apart by a ball of energy that then explodes, knocking you on your ass. The last thing you see is the krogan walking up to your unresponsive body.
** '''Reave''': A justicar? Oh boy, this is gonna be rough… but you have orders. You raise your gun, hoping to take her out quickly, but she raises a hand, casting some sort of power. Why do I feel so… sleepy? What the hell did she do to me? As you fall to the ground, the justicar walks up to you, and plants her [[CombatStilettos boot]] on your neck. You can't do anything to resist, only watch as she says [[PreMortemOneLiner "Find peace in the embrace of the goddess."]] '''[[NeckSnap CRACK!]]'''
* Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC: [[spoiler:The (current) Shadow Broker is revealed to be a [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Yahg Yahg]], a massive creature said to be more savage as a species than the krogan.]]If that wasn't enough, [[spoiler: [[FromNobodyToNightmare read his dossier after you beat him]]. While it was nice to see a slaver [[AssholeVictim get his just end]], there's a few lines at the end where it shows just how easily one of the most powerful people in the galaxy is killed and replaced...''and nobody knows the difference''.]]
* One obscure side quest drops you on a geth-infested planet where the fog is so thick you can only see about 10 feet in front of you. You have to walk forward, listening to the clicking of the hordes of invisible homicidal robots, waiting for them to pour out of the fog at you en masse.
* Han Olar's letter, in which he expresses his deep guilt over [[spoiler:the woman whose life he sacrificed to save his own]], and prays that he is experiencing a dying hallucination, preferring death over his guilt-ridden existence.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvzWA7oIbF4&feature=related Here]] is what happens if you let the timer run out in ''The Arrival''. [[spoiler:For those who couldn't make out the images, comes with many things including; [[RedSkyTakeWarning burning skies]] filled with [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]], [[DesolationShot cities]] [[RuinsOfTheModernAge being destroyed]], decimated planets, [[BodyHorror Kelly's death]] ([[NightmareFace this one]] [[HellIsThatNoise in particular]]), and your [[TrueCompanions Squadmates from this and the previous game]] along with [[EnemyMine The Illusive Man]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy calmly standing side-by-side and looking reverently up at]] [[BigBad Harbinger]] as he descends]]. [[SarcasmMode Sweet dreams]]!
* Every NonstandardGameOver counts as this. Seeing Joker scrabble desperately at the floor while a Scion bears down on him; hearing your tech specialist scream in agony as they're slowly cooked in a blocked vent; watching EDI get corrupted by an insane VI; Morinth's SlasherSmile as she melts your brain; watching humanity being slaughtered and mutated by the Reapers...
* Imagine the perspective of The Arrival from the batarian colonists' perspective. You are just a batarian, not a mercenary or a killer, just a regular colonist, going about your day like nothing is wrong. Then, in what must have looked like forever from where you are standing, cosmic destruction comes straight at you and wipes you and over 300,000 other colonists out.
** Or worse, imagine you're on another colony in the Viper Nebula. You're talking via Relay channel to your family on Aratoht when suddenly the signal is interrupted by a bright flash of light, and then static. Because the relay is gone and the system is light-years away, there's no way to know that they just got wiped out by a supernova-sized explosion. Instead, all of a sudden Bahak just goes dark, and your colony is cut off from the rest of the galaxy. Then a few hours or days later, a ''fleet'' of bio-mechanical [[EldritchAbomination abominations]] descends upon your planet without warning; killing, indoctrinating, and husking anyone they come across. Without the Alpha Relay, there's no way to escape, no way to send a warning, no way to even ask what the hell those things are that are slaughtering your people wholesale. [[spoiler: And worst of all, you personally consigned them to that fate, ''in addition'' to the colonists you killed directly on Arahtot. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job, Shepard.]]]]
* As of the end of the Arrival DLC mission, The Reapers are '''here'''; they just haven't reached another Mass Relay yet.
* The encounter with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKgaYZZ3g5c the most polite krogan in the universe]] can be ''really'' unsetting and even creepy. It's a ''[[ProudWarriorRaceGuy krogan]]'', in a suit that doesn't look like armor, is extremely polite and even refuse your help and hope a confrontation won't be necessary. What makes it creepy beside all of that ? ''"Mr.Thax will make a series of light calls."'' and, when asked what will happend to the person who cheated Thax ''"That will depend on how sincere her apology is and how willing she is to correct her mistake."'', All of this imply that she probably won't get out of this well.
* The opening cutscene of the game is pretty horrific - the Normandy-1 being attacked by a mysterious enemy ship several times its size, being pretty much ''torn apart'' by the attacker, and then you get to control Shepard as he staggers through the ship, alarms screaming and fires & explosions everywhere, along with exterior shots of the once-proud vessel limping through space while under fire with huge burning holes and missing chunks all over, and ending with one last shot from the enemy dreadnought's cannon ''obliterating'' the ship that we had come to know & love from the first game, blowing it in half and then shattering it into a thousand pieces, leaving Shepard to plummet down to the planet below.
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