History YMMV / MassEffect

* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/MassEffect1 Dr. Saleon]]; [[YMMV/MassEffect3 Kai Leng & Henry Lawson]]; and [[YMMV/MassEffectAndromeda The Archon]] from the games. [[YMMV/MassEffectAscension Golo]] from the books. See those pages for details.

* TaintedByThePreview: Although the promised gameplay improvements of the [[UpdatedRerelease Legendary Edition]] have been accepted, the previews got some flak for A) the visual rehauls certain planets have received (such as ''1'''s Eden Prime losing its nightmarish red hue in favor of the Earth-like skies seen in ''3''), due to completely changing the atmosphere to what some feel are more generic and dull [[RealIsBrown brown]] and B) [=BioWare=] claiming they would be altering some camera angles to tone down MaleGaze, leading to accusations that [[SkewedPriorities they seemed more concerned with removing butt shots then restoring cut content or otherwise refining the game]]. The latter would turn out to be [[LyingCreator an exaggeration]] (only ''two'' shots in the entire series were altered; Femshep's [[GoodBadBugs accidental flashing]][[note]]She sits with her legs open just like male Shepard, even if she's wearing a cocktail dress[[/note]] and a brief moment where the camera lands on Miranda's rear [[{{Narm}} as she's expressing concern for her sister's well-being]] thanks to the way the scene is shot), and any controversy was swiftly forgotten.

* EscapistCharacter: This trope is Commander Shepard to a tee. You can choose to be the ultimate hero or the ultimate bad ass, you can customize Shepard to be most like yourself, most of the characters have a crush on you, and you go around saving the world and kicking ass, as well as becoming an intergalactic celebrity on a regular basis.

* AngstWhatAngst: Shepard seems to take the whole being brought back from the dead thing in stride, completely ignoring the philosophical implications of [[DeathIsCheap being dead]], [[WeCanRebuildHim being brought back to life as a cyborg]], or the [[CessationOfExistence possible absence of any form of an afterlife]]. Tends to be justified as it's [[MemeticBadass Shepard]]. It should also be taken into account how immediately after being brought back they're thrown right into the fight and don't especially have to time to think about things. It's also possible that Shepard is suffering from DeathAmnesia. Since it's never brought up, its impossible to know one way or the other. Finally subverted during the [[spoiler:assault on the Illusive Man's base]] if you play the videos where [[spoiler:the Illusive Man discusses Shepard's reconstruction]]. It turns out that Shepard has been having a pretty serious existential crisis, and it gets worse when they find out [[spoiler:they were ''literally dead.'' They wonder if they're [[TomatoInTheMirror just a VI that thinks they're Shepard]]. Shepard's love interest, if present, will be reassuring.]]

* ContestedSequel: The first three games all had good scores (with [=ME2=] receiving the most accolades), but many fans criticized ''2'' for its controversial gameplay and storytelling changes, and several aspects of ''3'' (most infamously, but not exclusively [[EndingAversion the ending]]) were panned by the fanbase.

* EndingAversion: The third game does that for the entire trilogy, if the official forums are of any significant indication. Many fans still apply FanonDiscontinuity against the ending, final act, or even entire game.

* WhatAnIdiot: Conrad Verner, consistently in all three games. [[CoolOldLady Matriarch Aethyta]] [[{{Facepalm}} speaks for us all]].

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: During one of the conversations with in the first game, when Shepard walks in on her talking with one of her sisters and the sister comments on Male Shepard/Kaidan (depending on Shepard's gender) being "cute," Ash winds up saying "Oh, shoot me now," out of embarrassment. [[spoiler:If she is the Virmire survivor, guess what happens if you aren't able to talk her down in ''Mass Effect 3''?]]

* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/MassEffect3 Henry Lawson]] and [[YMMV/MassEffectAndromeda The Archon]] from the games; [[YMMV/MassEffectAscension Golo]] from the books. See those pages for details.

** Back around 2013 or thereabouts, Creator/LegendaryPictures acquired the film rights to the series. While nothing has come of that as of this writing, the [=4K=] remaster of the "[[{{FanNickname}} Shepard/Milky Way Trilogy]]" ended up being called ''Mass Effect: Legendary Edition''.

** On a technical level, we have the ''Legendary Edition'' of the trilogy. Some fans believe that the remastered versions of all three games are lessened by a number of technical shortcuts that were taken, including some bugs that weren't fixed between the original releases to the remasters. That ''2'' and ''3'' also didn't get any modifications to gameplay beyond just framerate and loading enhancements, such as restoring cut content from the latter games (especially as interviews released to market the collection noted such cut content including a planned Jack romance for Female Shepard). Others are willing to overlook said shortcuts because the things that ''have'' been improved, such as load times (the infamous elevators are skippable once the next area loads, and the load screen animations in 2, which previously had to play all the way through, regardless of load time, now have their playing speed tied to the level load, so they finish when the load finishes) make up for it.

** Liara is a commonly used squadmate and adored by most fans, many of whom ship her and Shepard. However, she also gets plenty of vitriol poured over her due in part to the CharacterFocus since the second game: She's mandatory in multiple missions in ''3'' (three in the base game, four if you have ''From Ashes''), has a DLC in ''2'' focused on her, is the most plot-relevant party member, and is treated as Shepard's best friend in the second and third game (assuming she's not romanced) regardless of how you actually treated her in the first, and in the original release of ''3'', she was one the only squadmate from the first game who was guaranteed to be alive at the end of the trilogy (in the ''Extended Cut'' DLC, if you bring Liara along for the final mission and have sufficiently low war assets, then she and your other squadmate will be vaporized by Harbinger near the end of the mission). She is also the only character from the original trilogy to "appear" in ''Andromeda'', and apparently was one of the catalysts for the Andromeda Project.

** On a technical level, we have the ''Legendary Edition'' of the trilogy. Some fans believe that the remastered versions of all three games are lessened by a number of technical shortcuts that were taken, including some bugs that weren't fixed between the original releases to the remasters. Others are willing to overlook said shortcuts because the things that ''have'' been improved, such as load times (the infamous elevators are skippable once the next area loads, and the load screen animations in 2, which previously HAD to play all the way through, regardless of load time, now have their playing speed tied to the level load, so they finish when the load finishes) make up for it.

** ''[[YMMV/MassEffect1 Mass Effect 1]]''
** ''[[YMMV/MassEffect2 Mass Effect 2]]''
** ''[[YMMV/MassEffect3 Mass Effect 3]]''
** ''[[YMMV/MassEffectAscension Ascension]]''
** ''[[YMMV/MassEffectParagonLost Paragon Lost]]''
** ''[[YMMV/MassEffectInfiltrator Infiltrator]]''
** ''[[YMMV/MassEffectAndromeda Andromeda]]''
** ''[[YMMV/MassEffectNexusUprising Nexus Uprising]]''
** ''[[YMMV/MassEffectInitiation Initiation]]''
** ''[[YMMV/MassEffectAnnihilation Annihilation]]''

* CrazyAwesome: You're free to play Shepard as this. Your Shepard can be the sort of person who deals with rude mercs by shoving them out windows, fights Thresher Maws with a pistol, punches annoying reporters, drinks ''radioactive liqour'', and always has a snarky quip for whatever horrific event is occurring. Shepard can show signs of severe mental instability, but often in ridiculously cool ways.

** Liara is a commonly used squadmate and adored by most fans, many of whom ship her and Shepard. However, she also gets plenty of vitriol poured over her due in part to the CharacterFocus since the second game: She's mandatory in multiple missions in ''3'' (three in the base game, four if you have ''From Ashes''), has a DLC in ''2'' focused on her, is the most plot-relevant party member, and is treated as Shepard's best friend in the second and third game (assuming she's not romanced) regardless of how you actually treated her in the first, and in the original release of ''3'' she was one the only squadmate from the first game who was guaranteed to be alive at the end of the trilogy (in the ''Extended Cut'' DLC, if you bring Liara along for the final mission and have sufficiently low war assets, then she and your other squadmate will be vaporized by Harbinger near the end of the mission). She is also the only character from the original trilogy to "appear" in ''Andromeda'', and apparently was one of the catalysts for the Andromeda Project.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The quarians were meant to be a WoobieSpecies kicked off their homeworld [[RobotWar by the geth uprising]] unaware of geth's benevolence and their own fault in starting it do to their ancestors omitting proof of such from their history[[note]]that they massacred the geth before they showed any hostility AND [[KickTheDog their own people defending them]], the geth only stating to fight back to protect the latter[[/note]]. But due to the quarians constant ([[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch with only one exception]]) [[NeverMyFault refusal to even consider the possibility they started the conflict]], continual provoking of geth hostility, and the only quarian shown to [[HeelRealization acknowledge said proof]] unwilling to change their actions until the last moment by which time many had written them off pushed them past the limit of what many were willing to sympathize with. It seems as the designers wanted to make the arc's final choice [[spoiler: between saving the quarians or the geth as morally ambiguous as possible, but they overestimated players' sympathy for the former and - to the creators' surprise - letting quarians die out ended up being more popular choice by far.]]

** '''The Morning War:''' Some feel that the Quarians were completely well within their rights to preemptively eliminate the Geth, and that the Geth went overboard almost sending them into extinction. The other side felt that the geth were justified since they were fighting in self-defense, and that the Quarians got hit by LaserGuidedKarma. It all tends to come down to what side of the WhatMeasureIsANonHuman scale are you on?

** Some interesting examples of this within the fandom:
*** '''The First Contact War:''' Some believe that the turians were well within their rights to uphold galactic law and stop an unknown race (humans) from opening more Mass Relays, while others think they were simply trigger-happy and LawfulStupid for opening fire ''without'' explaining any of this first. Likewise, were the turians justified in using deorbited [[ColonyDrop satellites, spacejunk and small meteors]] to take out ground forces and civilians, or is this simply a case of ValuesDissonance at work, since they don't ''have'' civilians and consider ''all'' individuals in an active war zone to be valid targets?
*** '''The Morning War:''' Some feel that the Quarians were completely well within their rights to preemptively eliminate the Geth, and that the Geth went overboard almost sending them into extinction. The other side felt that the geth were justified since they were fighting in self-defense, and that the Quarians got hit by LaserGuidedKarma. It all tends to come down to what side of the WhatMeasureIsANonHuman scale are you on?

** Liara is a commonly used squadmate and adored by most fans, many of whom ship her and Shepard. However, she also gets plenty of vitriol poured over her due in part to the CharacterFocus since the second game: She's mandatory in multiple missions in ''3'' (three in the base game, four if you have ''From Ashes''), has a DLC in ''2'' focused on her (to the point where your other characters don't even talk at all once she shows up), is the most plot-relevant party member, and is treated as Shepard's best friend in the second and third game (assuming she's not romanced) regardless of how you actually treated her in the first. She is also the only character from the original trilogy to "appear" in ''Andromeda'', and apparently was one of the catalysts for the Andromeda Project.

* EpilepticTrees: Exactly who is Liara's father has been up for debate for a while. [[spoiler:Lair of the Shadow Broker heavily implies that her father is the Asari Bartender,]] which is [[spoiler: confirmed in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''.]]

** Liara is a commonly used squadmate and adored by most fans, many of whom ship her and Shepard, but she also gets plenty of vitriol poured over her due in part to the CharacterFocus she tends to receive from the developers: She's mandatory in multiple missions in ''3'' (three in the base game, four if you have ''From Ashes''), has a DLC focused on her (to the point where your other characters don't even talk at all once she shows up), is the most plot-relevant party member, and is treated as Shepard's best friend in the second and third game (assuming she's not romanced) regardless of how you actually treated her in the first. She is also the only character from the original trilogy to "appear" in ''Andromeda'', and apparently was one of the catalysts for the Andromeda Project.
** In addition, Jack, Miranda, Kelly Chambers, Zaeed Massani, and (especially after the second game) Kaidan and Ashley are all extremely polarizing characters. Ashley moved out of this status in the third game, but not in a positive way (see her entry on The Scrappy). Jack, Miranda, Kaidan, and Zaeed's receptions improved in the third game, with the Citadel DLC in particular helping the latter.

** The krogan and the genophage is a big one. Did the salarians and turians go too far in resorting to biological warfare to stop the krogan? Mordin insists the genophage is not a sterility plague, but merely drastically reduces viable krogan births to within an acceptable population growth to prevent krogan expansionism. However the social effects of the genophage were so devastating that krogan population growth fell well below that, and by the time of the game they seem on their way to extinction. On the other hand, does the fault lie with the krogan themselves, who not only started the war in the first place, but afterwards remained belligerent and unapologetic, and still prefer violence rather than piecing their society back together?

** In addition, Jack, Miranda, Kelly Chambers, Zaeed Massani, and (especially after the second game) Kaidan and Ashley are all extremely polarizing characters. Ashley moved out of this status in the third game, but not in a positive way (see her entry on The Scrappy). Jack, Miranda, Kaiden, and Zaeed's receptions improved in the third game, with the Citadel DLC in particular helping the latter.

* TaintedByThePreview: Although the promised gameplay improvements of the [[UpdatedRerelease Legendary Edition]] have been accepted, the previews got some flak for A) the visual rehauls certain planets have received (such as ''1'''s Eden Prime losing its nightmarish red hue in favor of the Earth-like skies seen in ''3''), due to completely changing the atmosphere to what some feel are more generic and dull [[RealIsBrown brown]] and B) [[VocalMinority more infamously]], the alteration of a few camera angles in ''2'' - such as rising the camera to avoid Femshep's accidental flashing[[note]]She sits with her legs open just like male Shepard, even if she's wearing a cocktail dress[[/note]] and the removal of Miranda's infamous ass shot where the camera zooms in on her rear as she's [[MoodDissonance expressing concern for her sister's well-being]][[note]]Note that Miranda's [[MsFanservice appearance]] has not been altered, and there's no implication that any other MaleGaze moment in the series has been altered[[/note]].

** While fans are willing to accept criticisms about certain elements, particularly the first game's gameplay and the third's ending, as a whole Mass Effect has an extremely devoted fanbase, and saying you dislike the series as a whole ''will'' incur their wraith.

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** The fans of female Shepard dominate the internet and forum space, but [[http://www.cinemablend.com/games/18-Percent-Gamers-Play-Female-Shepard-Mass-Effect-33611.html it turns out that only 18% of ME3 players actually play as her.]] l

* LoveToHate: Sparatus, the turian councilor. He is notoriously frustrating to deal with and comes off as a dick even when compared to the rest of the council and Udina, but he is also responsible for several memes, his constant opposition to Shepard even when logic stares him down ''and'' his CharacterDevelopment in 3 make him a memorable character.

** Liara is a commonly used squadmate and adored by a section of the fanbase that ships her and Shepard, but she gets more vitriol poured over her than nearly any other squadmate, due in part to the CharacterFocus she tends to receive from the developers: She's mandatory in multiple missions in ''3'' (three in the base game, four if you have ''From Ashes''), has a DLC focused on her (to the point where your other characters don't even talk at all once she shows up), is the most plot-relevant party member, and is treated as Shepard's best friend in the second and third game (assuming she's not romanced) regardless of how you actually treated her in the first. She is also the only character from the original trilogy to "appear" in ''Andromeda'', and apparently was one of the catalysts for the Andromeda Project.
** In addition, Jack, Miranda, Kelly Chambers, Zaeed Massani, and (especially after the second game) Kaidan and Ashley are all extremely polarizing characters. Ashley moved out of this status in the third game, but not in a positive way (see her entry on The Scrappy).