Mass Effect (video game): Difference between revisions

** Shepard: "I've lost shields!"

* [[Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu]]: Sure, killing Sovereign was awesome, but {{spoiler|no matter which option you chose there are still thousands of deaths, and the damage to the Citadel itself will take seven years to fix}}. In a literal example, after the fight Shepard shows up cradling his/her arm to his/her body, indicating that s/he actually broke it in the final battle and its aftermath.

** Midway through Eden Prime, you meet a trio of colonists; at one point, one of them accidentally mentions that they have weapons. You have to take the pistol, there is no option to let them keep it for self-defense.

** On Virmire, there's no option to agree with Wrex about {{spoiler|not destroying the cure for the Genophage, the disease that's killing his people.}} There are just different ways to make him agree with you {{spoiler|or kill him.}}

** [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]: Ambassador Udina

** [[Red Shirt]]: Richard [[Leeroy Jenkins|L. Jenkins]].

* [[Conversation Casualty]]: This is how the conversation between Nihlus and Saren goes.

* [[Copy Protection]]: The PC version of ''Mass Effect'' only allows you to install it three times on different machines/hardware configurations. The previous version of the copy protection involved regular "calling in" periods to a remote server, resulting in a non-functional game if the program was unable to connect to the authentication server.

** One of the side-quests has Admiral Hackett asking you to diffuse a nuclear weapon that he explains has the same power as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Oddly enough, the game averts this trope when discussing the improvised nuclear weapon on Virmire, which dialogue indicates also has the same explosive power as the Hiroshima bomb -- although this is probably due to Kirrahe being a salarian, and therefore unlikely to make this reference.

* [[Hitchhiker Heroes]]: Apart from Kaidan, who is actually part of your squad at the beginning of the game, and Liara, who you are specifically sent out to pick up, every squadmate joins of their own free will, or because Anderson thought they might be useful.

* [[Idle Animation]]: Each squadmate has a unique idle animation.

** Ashley puts her hands on her hips and poses her hips.

{{quote| "Science pukes. Should just bug out and leave 'em to die. All their fault anyway. Heh. 'Bug out.' Heh heh heh heh heh."}}

* [[Infinity+1 Sword|Infinity Plus One Guns]]: Spectre Master Gear. Comes in all four weapon flavors, expensive as hell, and [[Game Breaker|utterly devastating]].

* [[Interface Spoiler]]: When you first encounter {{spoiler|Rachni}} on Noveria, the label above them calls them such, even though Shepard doesn't find this out for another 20 minutes.

* [[Internet Counterattack]]: Cooper Lawrence declared that the game was a [[Hot Coffee Minigame|graphic sex simulator]] on Fox News, where she admitted she had never played the game, or even heard anything about it. Gamers responded by bombing the hell of her Amazon book rating, along with reviews that started with "I've never read this book, but..." When Amazon started taking down reviews such as this, gamers responded by beginning their reviews with "I HAVE read this book, and..."

* [[Karma Houdini]]:

** In "Bring Down the Sky", {{spoiler|the Paragon ending has you let Balak go to save the hostages}}.

* [[Karma Meter]]: The scale does not reflect "good" or "evil" choices, but instead grades based upon what the game terms "paragon" and "renegade" depending on ''how'' you achieve victory. The options on each decision tree fall on opposite sides of the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]], and paragon and renegade points stack up on separate meters; gaining in one area will not reduce the points in the other.

* [[Kill'Em All]]: An alarming amount of the sidequests where you're sent to find someone end up with them dead by the time you get there.

** After a certain point, you cannot return to {{spoiler|the Citadel}}, and thus you cannot complete any sidequests involving it.

* [[Love Triangle]]: It is possible to flirt with both Kaiden/Ashley ''and'' Liara at the same time. Eventually the two will approach you simultaneously and demand some sort of conclusion; you have the option of rejecting one or inviting them [[One True Threesome|be in a relationship together]]. {{spoiler|Liara is willing to have an inclusive relationship, but the human will refuse}}.

* [[Ludicrous Gibs]]: Shooting someone with special ammunition types can have disturbing effects. [[Nightmare Fuel|Poison-damage ammo causes enemies to become green vapor after death]], [[Kill It With Fire|fire-damage ammo causes them to turn to a bunch of floating-away red ashes upon killing them]], [[Kill It With Ice|ice-damage ammo causes their bodies to freeze, bursting into shards after a couple of seconds]], [[Stuff Blowing Up|explosive ammo causes the corpse to catch fire]], [[Shock and Awe|proton rounds (which allow your shots to pierce shields) will cause an enemy to be consumed by blue electricity and fizzle out]], and radioactive rounds function similarly to poison ammo, except the hapless victim leaves a sickly brown grease stain on the ground after they die.

* [[Mad Doctor]]: Dr. Saleon, who used living people to grow illegal organs, and kidnapped them to use as hostages when he was discovered. He made some... [[Body Horror|other changes]]... to them before Shepard finally caught up with him.

** No matter what gender Shepard is, the romantic scene contains a lovingly rendered female rear end. If you are a female romancing Kaidan, you get to see his as well.

* [[Meaningful Name]]:

** Vigil, whose job was to keep a vigil for as long as possible for someone, ''anyone'' who had a chance at breaking the {{spoiler|extinction cycle}}.

** [[Leeroy Jenkins|Private Richard L. Jenkins]]. Like no one knew what was going to happen to him.

* [[The Modest Orgasm]]: The Consort is apparently very...controlled.

* [[Moment Killer]]: Joker interrupts what's about to be the first kiss between Shepard and his/her Love Interest.

* [[More Dakka]]:

** It's possible to mod an assault rifle to the point where it '''never stops firing'''. But it's just not enuff dakka. It's never enuff dakka.

* [[Neutral Female]]: Liara crouches down in the middle of the floor in the final fight on Therum and does not attack the Krogan Battlemaster in any way; [[Justified Trope|but she is faint with hunger and lack of sleep]]..

* [[Never Mess With Granny]]. Helena Blake.

* [[Not a Game]]: Uttered by Shepard during one sidequest; as always when this trope is mentioned in a video game, [[Hypocritical Humor|it is amusing]].

* [[Not So Different]]: [[Complete Monster|Balak]] from the ''Bring Down the Sky'' DLC tries this on you if {{spoiler|you sacrifice the hostages in order to apprehend him and prevent him from crashing and asteroid into a colony.}} This becomes [[Harsher in Hindsight]] in the ''Arrival'' DLC of the next game where {{spoiler|you use a repurposed asteroid to destroy a Mass Relay, destroying the star system in a supernova-sized blast, it's 305,000 batarian inhabitants included.}}

** No matter whether you kill the {{spoiler|rachni queen}} or let her live, the turian councillor will blast you for it in terms appropriate to a hypothetical offspring of Sauron and Hitler.

* [[Schrodinger's Question]]: In a few places, pieces of Shepard's past (religion, for example) are only decided when they come up in conversation and the player is given a choice.

* [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]]: One AI, when you trace it, announces that it knows you are going to kill it, refuses to listen to explanations, and activates a self-destruct countdown. If it had not done this, a Paragon Shepard might have let it live.

* [[Shell Shocked Senior]]: General Septimus.

* [[Shipper On Deck]]: Ashley's sisters will ship her and Shepard in a voice mail or - if Shepard tells Liara that he and Ashley are "just friends" beforehand - her and Kaiden. The latter she laughs about. The former depends on how you treat her.

* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]:

** The terrorist just blew up the hostages and declares that it's Shepard's fault they died. What's one of Shepard's potential responses? ''Fire warning shots each time the terrorist opens his mouth until he finally gets the message after taking a few bullets.''

'''Pallin:''' Good. Then fight for it. But don't expect the rest of us to just sit back and let you take it. }}

* [[Sidequest Sidestory]]: the Cerberus quest line from Admiral Kahoku.

* [[Simon Says Mini Game]]: Nearly every puzzle or action requires this on the 360, from hacking to mining to breaking and entering. Fortunately, the PC and second game made things a bit more sophisticated.<ref>There are still a few Simon Says games, but most tasks are achieved with what amounts to Radial Frogger.</ref>

* [[Sniper Pistol]]: At lower levels, not so much, but if you put points into the Pistol skill and you got better and better pistols, they wind up doing just as much damage as assault rifles, and their firing rate becomes almost ridiculous. Slap on some upgrades to improve accuracy, and bingo. About the only thing sniper rifles have on them at that point is higher base damage and the ability to zoom.

'''Shepard:''' "[[Memetic Mutation|I've had enough of your snide insinuations!]]" *punch to the face* }}

* [[Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness]]: Ten tiers. Four weapon types. More than a dozen manufacturers, each of which with multiple models of the same type of weapon. It rapidly gets confusing.

** {{spoiler|Nihlus'}} death. The cutscene ends with Saren pointing his gun at the back of his head, then as you regain control of Shepard you hear the distant shot.

** One DLC has you find a mangled corpse, along with a recording of the explosion which killed them. A few other cases show up, though they are only described in the mission log, not heard.

* [[Wake Up Call Boss]]: Assuming you play the game in the developers' intended order, the Geth Armature on Therum. After several minutes of blasting Geth to shreds in the Mako followed by the still relatively easy task of killing them on foot, you come face-to-face with a gigantic machine that has '''tons''' of health and can easily kill you with a single hit. In fact, it's not uncommon for the Armature to kill Shepard ''as soon as the battle begins'', which is a surefire sign that stronger shields and/or armor might be called for.

* [[The War Has Just Begun]]: Shepard's endgame speech. Anderson or Udina also make one, depending on your decisions.

{{quote| {{spoiler|There is a realm of existence so far beyond your your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. '''I...am Sovereign.'''}}}}

** Also, this line from the conversation with {{spoiler|Vigil on Ilos}}: