Mass Effect 3/YMMV: Difference between revisions

* [[Alas, Poor Scrappy]]: {{spoiler|Udina for some. For others, it counts as [[Take That, Scrappy!]] though.}}.

** Jacob Taylor. Even if you romanced him as FemShep he still hooks up with Dr Cole during your incarceration. Given that he ''also'' hooked up with Miranda at one point, are we still sure she was the one to end things? And if she did, was it because she realised that Jacob might be obsessed with screwing the boss to get the "The priiize". It certainly puts his hatred of the Illusive Man into a [[Foe Yay|strange new light.]].

** Speaking of TIM, he gets more of this in ''Mass Effect 3'' than in ''Mass Effect 2'' (and he got a lot of interpretation in ''Mass Effect 2''); most of it comes down to ''when'' he was indoctrinated. The novels suggest he's been subtly indoctrinated for the last twenty years, where as he didn't get fully enhanced to Saren-levels until fairly late in the game. This causes some debate over how responsible he is for his own actions; if he wasn't indoctrinated(or at least not enough that it could be called [[More Than Mind Control]]), then he did a running leap over the [[Moral Event Horizon]] a ''long'' time ago. If he ''is'' indoctrinated, then he gets demoted from part of a [[Big Bad Ensemble]] with Harbinger {{spoiler|and the Catalyst}} to being a [[Dragon with an Agenda]] {{spoiler|or worse, the [[Evil Genius]] to the Catalyst's big bad and Harbinger's dragon}}. Incidentally, this would also bump Kai Leng down from [[The Dragon]] to [[The Brute]].

*** It would also introduce a [[Plot Hole]] the size of the Citadel, because the entire plot of ''Mass Effect 2'' is the Illusive Man expending 2 years' worth of effort and billions of credits' worth of resources to do something (specifically, resurrect Shepard) that he ''already knows'' that other indoctrinated servants of the Reapers (the Collectors) are working to oppose. Had he been indoctrinated at that time, he would have just let the Collectors have you.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pShKKOV_gA&feature=g-u-u&context=G2dc88d4FUAAAAAAAAAA The fans finally get the much-awaited FemShep trailer.].

** You can finally play as different Alien Races (in multiplayer.).

** If you can get over the [[Internet Backdraft]] about first day DLC, one of your squad is {{spoiler|a frickin' PROTHEAN!}}! The same DLC also features a mission to Eden Prime, complete with the music from the first game.

** And [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG2mdZ23eP8 the launch trailer]. Many nerdgasms were had upon seeing such things as - {{spoiler|a Brute at 0:48, Jack at 1:26 (now with hair!), Legion at 1:23, TIMthe Illusive Man, and the Destiny Ascension}}.

** Faunts are back for the credits music (at least going by the official soundtrack's tracklist), so one of the oft-complained-of issues of the second game -... rectified!

** [https://web.archive.org/web/20130708162531/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/05/mass-effect-3-extended-cut-dlc-free-this-summer-offers-furth/ The Extended Endings DLC will be free], as will the Resurgence Pack, which opens up ''geth and batarian characters'' for multiplayer -... not to mention the Krogan Vanguard and Asari Justicar Adept. Plus, two new multiplayer maps and a few extra guns to play with.

** [[PlayStation]] 3 players can now finally [http://www.gamezone.com/products/mass-effect-3/news/mass-effect-3-multiplayer-challenges-now-supported-on-ps3 join in on the N7 Weekend Challenges, starting with Operation Exorcist on the weekend of April 27 to 29, 2012.]. Before this, only PC and Xbox 360 players were able to participate in the N7 Weekend Challenges; Sony users were excluded due to undisclosed reasons, with [http://www.gamezone.com/products/mass-effect-3/news/sony-not-allowing-mass-effect-3-multiplayer-challenges-on-ps3 Sony and BioWare][http://www.computerandvideogames.com/344481/sony-working-on-mass-effect-3-mp-challenges-for-ps3/ claiming the other as responsible for holding things back.].

** {{spoiler|The endings either fit with the game's tone perfectly, or are awful, unrealistic, and completely invalidate not just all the player investment in this game, but in the [[Mass Effect|entire]] [[Mass Effect 2|series]]. And then there are the people who want a middle ground where they think the endings fit but wish the mass relays were not harmed. Or complain that they look rushed, like they lack a few cutscenes and lines of dialogue (like the whole ''Normandy'' sequence). The info prompt at the end summing up Shepard's victory is similarly debated upon.}}.

** A smaller base breaker has appeared in the {{spoiler|unveiling of Tali's face for the first time in a picture. Is Tali too human looking or is she beautiful in all the right ways? Also, is Bioware scum for using a photoshopped stock image, or does it work out well enough to be forgiven?}}?

** Bioware themselves have admitted to being fans of Liara, which some have complained resulted in her having more dialogue than Garrus and Tali combined. This isn't helped by the fact that Liara's the only ''ME1Mass Effect 1'' squad member guaranteed to still be alive by the time of the final battle with the Reapers, and {{spoiler|1=unless Shepard romanced Kaiden or Ashley, his/her last thought will ''always'' be of Liara}}. In fact, even if {{spoiler|they survive [[Mass Effect|Virmire]] or the [[Mass Effect 2|Suicide Mission]], Tali &and the Virmire Survivor can still die depending on if the player's actions in this game}}.

* [[Critical Dissonance]]: The game received universal acclaim from critics, with ''over 70 perfect scores''. Fan opinion, however, is possibly the most wildly divided out of any game in Bioware's history. Considering the default state of the fandom is a [[Broken Base|base broken into about a dozen or more pieces]], that's ''really'' saying something. [http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/03/22/mass-effect-3-gears-of-war-3-and-why-reviewers-fail/ Examined here].

** Depending on where you face them, Banshees. They're well armoured, have a powerful (if slow) biotic attack, use [[Teleport Spam]] as their main mode of transportation and if they get close... well, things get unpleasant for you. In an open battlefield, they're managable, but in close quarters? Yeesh, things tend to get hairy. Their close quarters attack not only instant kills but makes teammates unable to revive you, forcing them to go the whole rest of the round without you. Easy to avoid normally, but if you get cornered or flanked near one it won't be pretty. This goes double for [[Mighty Glacier]] character types who can normally take a lot of damage but lack a dodge maneuver, as this attack renders their damage resistance irrelevant and their lack of a dodge makes getting out of the way a lot harder, especially with the [[Teleport Spam]] making their movement unpredictable.

** The final opponent of the game, {{spoiler|1=, a Marauder you shoot while limping to the beam in London, has been named [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=467pmIX-oZo Marauder Shields] and}} is gaining a large fanbase. He tried to {{spoiler|[http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o4/Vulpix1000/motivator48cfb4eb2d9b0e12556e3209267450038685b648.jpg save us from the ending]}}. {{spoiler|[http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0zlheV62H1rrlnm8o1_1280.jpg We must] [http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/268/801/23f.jpg honor] [http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/269/187/6d3.jpg his noble sacrifice].}}.

** {{spoiler|Notable during the dream sequences the Boy always appears with the Reaper sound and when you run away from the boy, you can sometimes hear the voice of the Illusive Man and only of the Illusive Man.}}.

** {{spoiler|The Reapers are defeated for good, the galaxy is saved, the ''Normandy'' crew makes it out alive, and Commander Shepard is remembered for generations to come as a legendary hero(ine). Great, right? Except Shepard's dead, or at least very likely dead. '''And''' the mass relay network is destroyed, causing a possible [[Inferred Holocaust|technological dark age for galactic civilization]]. '''And''' the ''Normandy'' crew is left stranded on an alien planet, with possibly no rescue ever coming, and no guarantee some [[Bizarre Alien Biology|alien squad mates won't starve to death]]. Granted, the [[Distant Finale]] all but states that civilization recovered from the loss of the Mass Relays, but it's little consolation when the fates of nearly the entire cast is left unresolved.}}.

** {{spoiler|Even worse, if the life of the planet the ''Normandy'' crash lands on happens to be dextro-amino acid based, everyone BUT Garrus and Tali will starve to death. Possibly Tali as well if there is no way to purify the food adequately enough. It's terrifying to think about [[Fate Worse Than Death|Garrus spending the rest of his life alone on an alien world after watching the crew of the Normandy die a slow, starvation related death]]. If levo-based, Liara will live there for the next nine hundred years.}}

* [[Fandom Gank]]: The massive negative backlash to the end as it was originally released was the [[Trope Namer]]. The fandom reaction to the ending was equal parts "Huh?" and "You gotta be kidding!" and eventually grew to such a size that Bioware was forced to release [[DLC]] that tried to put a more acceptable spin on what happened. It's debatable if they succeeded, but the franchise managed to stay alive to spawn 2017's ''[[Mass Effect: Andromeda]]'', which seems to have redeemed the property.

** Everything after {{spoiler|the final encounter with the Illusive Man}} is shaping up to be this for many. Doesn't matter the reason (significant blood loss, continued exposure to Geth/Cerberus/Prothean/Reaper mind altering technology, stress from the fate of your species and the galaxy resting on your shoulders, or personal losses), just forget about it. [[Dying Dream|It never happened.]].

* [[Funny Aneurysm Moment]]: {{spoiler|Remember how Ereba (the Blue Rose of Illium) stated that she wasn't sure if she should marry a krogan because they're a long-term commitment while with humans you only have to stick out for a hundred years before they die? Well... how does six months sound instead, Ereba?<ref>Her boyfriend, Charr, is dead by the time you discover him in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]''.</ref>}}

** The new weapon weight system<ref>Faster cooldowns for lighter weapons.</ref> allows Vanguards equipped with only a pistol or SMG or an Avenger Assault Rifle (with a weight reduction) to spam [[Foe-Tossing Charge|Charge]] and [[Shockwave Stomp|Nova]] near instantly and repeatedly. With the right build, they become nearly untouchable, crushing the enemy with Charge/Nova and Charging away before taking any serious damage. In multiplayer, it's not uncommon to see skilled Vanguards earning double the amount of points of everyone else.

** The Particle Rifle (found in the "''From Ashes"'' DLC) emits a small beam that grows in intensity and damage as you continuously fire, and will chew through an enemy's shields and health. The gun will also never run out of ammo (you just have to wait a few seconds to refill energy). Add a Thermal Clip upgrade to the gun, and you can start mowing down Harvesters, mechs and everything in your path with sustained fire by the time you leave the Citadel for the first time and finish {{spoiler|Javik's}} mission. Best of all -... your squadmates can wield the same weapon, too!

** The Black Widow sniper rifle (basically, the good old Widow from part two but with three shots in a magazine and a negligible damage nerf) makes sniping pathetically easy. With the right upgrades, it effectively never runs out of ammo and wastes any non-boss enemy with a single hit delivered to any part of the body sticking out of cover. Plus, with Tactical Cloak, you can put [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|two shots]] on an enemy before he even knows you're there.

** The changes to Tactical Cloak. Whereas powers were completely disabled when it was active in ''ME2Mass Effect 2'', this iteration lets you use a power to break cloak. So you can still cloak, target an enemy with a power, pop him with your increased sniper damage, and get a damage bonus on both. The cloak's cooldown is relative to the time spent in it too, so if you do this quickly enough, you can actually get a cheaper cooldown that you would if you just used the other power without cloaking.

** Phantoms and Nemeses: Itsit's bad enough they fight in a way you're not used to (Nemeses use cover perfectly and can knock out your shields with one shot; Phantoms have biotic barriers, dance around, cloak to heal themselves, backflip, and go into melee combat surprisingly fast), its just that there are so damn many of them in a lot of levels. Phantoms can [[One Hit KO]] you as well, rendering you unable to be revived... aggravating in multiplayer games when it happens to your squad's most effective member; players usually make Phantoms top priority even compared to Atlases to kill as quickly as possible.

** In MP, sometimes an enemy's instakill attack glitches and leaves a small window for the victim to use medi-gel or have a teammate revive them.

** Tali {{spoiler|can die on Rannoch if you side with the Geth. In some games, this doesn't stop her from returning from the dead to romance Shepard later.}}.

** If you save everyone you can, {{spoiler|the game can make a ''male'' Shepard "remember" some of Thane's romance dialogue in the final dream sequence.}}.

*** Also Aethyta's comment about watching a Krogan drink a liquefied Turian on a dare considering {{spoiler|the [[Body Horror|methods]] of the Collectors and the appearance of the Brutes in the [[Mass Effect 3|sequel]]}}.

** A human female is heard speaking with a volus about her plans to go to Sanctuary. The volus glibly assures her that it's just a money making ploy and says he wishes he'd thought of it. Shepard is later sent to that very location on a mission and learns {{spoiler|it's much much worse than a scam}}. In the Embassies, a woman is seen negotiating the emergency transport of her daughter (by an asari wife) to the asari homeworld of Thessia. The embassy worker pulls some strings and grants the woman's request. {{spoiler|Thessia is overrun by Reapers a short time later. Poor kid.}}. Come to think of it, {{spoiler|anything you do on the Citadel is likely to seem both sad and futile}}, given the game's conclusion.

** Inverted (in that the harshness comes from a ''past'' event, rather than a future one) with one of the side missions, in which Engineer Adams asks you to get a thermal pipe from the Citadel to fix a design flaw with the Normandy's drive core. Why is it harsh, you ask? Adams explains that the problem causes a dangerous gas release in the engineering bay when the shields are under too much stress... which is exactly how you would have lost a squadmate in ME2''Mass Effect 2'' (usually Legion) if you didn't get Tali's shield upgrade.

** An asari commando with PTSD talks with a psychiatrist at Huerta Memorial Hospital. She was stationed at the human colony of Tiptree, and, there, befriended the farmers and families who lived there, particularly a adventurous young girl named Hillary, whom she later must kill to defend herself. {{spoiler|We later find out that Joker is from Tiptree, and has a young sister named Hillary, whose survival he isn't sure about.}}.

** In ME2''Mass Effect 2'', there is a minor sideplot where one of Shepard's crew members has Cerberus relocate his family from one of the vulnerable human colonies to Earth, and they barely escape a Collector attack. The crewman is extremely relieved his family is safe now. And then Earth winds up being the first planet to get attacked in ME3''Mass Effect 3''.

** In the Huerta Memorial Hospital, you can hear a woman arguing with the receptionist about the name of the Hospital. She argues that the president the hospital is named after is still alive, despite having been braindead for an hour. The receptionist argues that he is nothing more than aan android beacuse a VI does all the thinking for him. Siding with the receptionist makes Shepard compare the president to nothing more than a Husk. This comment can come back hard during {{spoiler|the Cerberus base in which Shepard had been braindead for month before being revived causing Shepard to wonder if she/he is just a VI which immitatesimitates the original Shepard.}}.

** In ME2''Mass Effect 2'', if you bring Jack with you during Legion's loyalty mission, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_QmG57VwZs she's very vocal about her disdain towards possibly brainwashing the heretics]. Specifically, "if you screwed with my head, made me nod and smile at everything... I'd rather you blow my head off. Let me die as me." Jack's remark sounds so much worse {{spoiler|if you skip the "Grissom Academy" mission and don't save her from Cerberus. Later on, in "Sanctuary", this is exactly what Cerberus does to Jack, in order to make her a Phantom. [[Tear Jerker|Damn.]] }}.

** [https://web.archive.org/web/20130804160314/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/5496-The-Positive-Side-of-Mass-Effect-3s-Ending-Drama Some have noted how this can be a good thing.].

** The noises that Reapers and the husks in general make, all fit this trope. Of special note is the noise the Reapers make when they find you while you're scanning a system. ''Dear. God.''. Oh, you haven't been paying attention to the Reaper Alert level again? They'll make sure you notice.

*** It's mentioned in-game as well! Some characters will mention that the Reaper horns are tuned to a specific frequency designed to induce a fear response in organics -... ''and it's implied it can ultimately cause indoctrination!''

{{quote|'''Joker:''' Mutating people to turn them into living weapons is one thing, but the yelling? Why make them yell? That's totally uncalled for. }}

** People have especially pointed out that Meer delivers some of the more comedic lines in the ''Citadel'' DLC with perfect tone and timing, where Hale in turn seems to read them a bit too straight and dramatically.

** Shepard's assessment of the situation as the game begins is;: "Unless we're planning to ''[[Talking the Monster to Death|Talk The Reapers To Death]]'', the committee's a waste of time." Except Shepard seems to have forgotten that the critical moments of his career were decided not by blowing things up, but by talking people into agreeing to do what Shepard wanted. {{spoiler|And in the endgame, the [[MacGuffin]] ends up being a way for an organic to have a face-to-face conversation with the controlling intelligence of the Reapers.}}.

** Bioware's "promises" that ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' wouldn't end with some buttons letting you pick A, B, or C. {{spoiler|Instead, you pick Red, Blue or Green.}}. Still, the endings [[Comically Missing the Point|weren't chosen by pressing buttons]] {{spoiler|but by Shepard limping to the desired choice.}}.

** According to the marketing director, many people picked her for her hairstyle, and not hair color, and a second [https://web.archive.org/web/20111220195841/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112376-BioWare-Pits-Blonde-Against-Brunette-in-New-FemShep-Poll contest] was created determine her hair color with the red headed FemShep the runaway winner.

** It was leaked that getting the Collector's Edition (Retail) or Digital Deluxe Edition (Origin) of the game would include an additional character in your team, of an alien race never before available as a squadmate (specifically, {{spoiler|Prothean}}). Players who don't get the Collector or Digital Deluxe Editions will be able to purchase the character as a $10 DLC, and it will be made available right from the release day. Accusations abound that Bioware deliberately cut content from the game to make a DLC of it. In response to this, Bioware has clarified that the character will appear in the regular game without DLC, but the DLC makes said character an actual squadmate. This was a complete lie;: that character does not appear during normal gameplay, nor indeed ''any'' member of his species. This is made worse by the apparent hacking of the game which reveals that some of the files for the secret character are [http://kotaku.com/5892307/part-of-mass-effects-controversial-day+one-dlc-is-on-the-disc-video-alleges- already in the game].

** [[Downer Ending|The]] [[Gainax Ending|end]][[No Ending|ings]]... To expand on this, when fans started reaching the ending of the game, ''all Hell broke loose''. A high-selling game with good critical reviews now boasts 2 stars on Amazon, and a Metacritic User score of 3.5 (compare the critical score of 9.5). All message boards dealing with the topic are inundated, and there are multiple polls and petitions which indicate that some ''ninety-eight percent'' of ''Mass Effect'' fans are dissatisfied with the ending. There may have never been a stronger negative reaction to ten minutes of a game in the history of the medium. For a brief idea, [http://social.bioware.com/633606/polls/28989/ see this]. As of this posting, that number of people who said they were satisfied with the endings is up to about 1000. Compared to about 60,000 votes that the endings were bad.<ref> moodMood-wise; this poll doesn't even have an option for people who hated the plot holes!</ref>. There's also a [http://www.facebook.com/DemandABetterEndingToMassEffect3 Facebook group] demanding a better ending for the game. It already has a membership total in the tens of thousands. One fan even went as far to [http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/03/17/mass-effect-3-ending-fighter-goes-to-the-ftc.aspx report to the Federal Trade Commission] over false advertising regarding the ending.

** [http://youtu.be/4H_A7SeawU4 These] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MlatxLP-xs&feature=related three] [https://web.archive.org/web/20130924130239/http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/aj/topreasons/34623-why-we-hate-me3s-ending videos,], and [http://www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/ this article] do the best at explaining why most people have such a problem with this ending.

** [http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/9256235/2 All aboard]{{Dead link}} [http://i.imgur.com/xMtxx.jpg the party temple!] <ref> The linked thread started on the Bioware forums using screencaps of the Youtube caption feature hilariously mistranslating spoken words from ''Mass Effect'' videos. A picture of a Reaper from ''Mass Effect 3'' with the the caption 'Party Temple' stood out, and very soon an image of Sovereign with the aforementioned line was posted.</ref>

** Pre-order cancelled! <ref> A mock line used to make fun of people who complain that the game has been [[Ruined FOREVER]] even before release.</ref>

** Kaidan [http://i.imgur.com/Bei8a.gif can't find the Geth]. <ref> On 2/23, Raphael Sbarge, the voice actor for Kaidan Alenko was asked to say something in his character's voice during a livestream interview. The first thing he could come up with was, "Hello, my name is Kaidan, um... Where are the Geth?" Screenshots and GIFS of Kaidan looking for/being obsessed with Geth were all over Tumblr. Mr. Sbarge has been notified of this meme. He thinks it's quite funny.</ref>

** SPACE MAGIC. <ref> Used derisively as an "explanation" for how the endings are possible, as many fans view them as nonsensical. The "Synthesis" ending especially.</ref>

** We're sorry you didn't like [insert item]. What about [item] did you like?<ref> A line mocking Chris Priestly's comment about the backlash.</ref>

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpeRk1YFn8s I f*cking love steak]. <ref> From a Gamer Poop video that edited dialogue from the game into nonsensical jokes.</ref>

** [https://web.archive.org/web/20130627012413/http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3oisfe/ Condescending Javik]. <ref> A series of images with Javik, in which he trivializes someone's complaints by comparing them to the extinction of his entire species.</ref>

** Lots of speculation for everyone! <ref>A line mocking a comment one of the creators made about the endings in the app "Final Hours".</ref>

** [[True Art Is Angsty|Artistic]] [[True Art Is Incomprehensible|Integrity]] .<ref> A phrase mocking a frequent justification Bioware used for the endings. Normally picture with shots of Edi's camel toe or the "Buy more DLCs" end message.</ref>

** [http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o4/Vulpix1000/StillaBetterEndingExplosion.jpg Still a better ending] than ''Mass Effect 3''. <ref> Most consider the ending ''so bad'' that ''anything'' is better.</ref>

** [[Fight Club|His name was]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=467pmIX-oZo Marauder Shields]. <ref> A nickname for the Turian husk that turns out to be the last enemy you fight properly in the game, most joking that he was trying to save Shepard/the player from the game's terrible endings.</ref>

** It's virtually guaranteed that by the time you discover {{spoiler|the truth about Sanctuary, if not before,}}, you will consider Illusive Man to have gone this way. While {{spoiler|his being indoctrinated may prevent him being wholly responsible for his actions, his character is not changed nearly as much as Benezia's, so it's debatable how much of the blame is the Reapers' and how much is his.}}. It's also left ambiguous {{spoiler|as to when exactly he was indoctrinated}}.

** The lengths that Han'Gerrel is willing to go to destroy the Geth. {{spoiler|It's bad enough that he attacked the geth dreadnought despite the fact that Shepard and his squad were still aboard, but he can potentially send his entire race to its doom.}}.

** {{spoiler|Kai Leng crosses it big time when he impales Thane / Kirrahe. This is of course assuming that he didn't cross it in one of the novels.}}.

* [[Most Annoying Sound]]: During the ''Citadel'' DLC, at various points in the mission, the interface will repeatedly instruct the player to take an action ("Select the enemy,", "Distract the enemy") and companions can be rather incessant about "Follow these wires.". Keep in mind that the whole point of this section is to be stealthy and time one's moves, so the "DO THIS, NOW!" prompts from the game get old... fast.

** The dream sequences, possibly because they can come off as ''very'' out of nowhere and overdramatic. {{spoiler|JOG SLOWLY IN MOON GRAVITY. DEAD PEOPLE FOREST. STOIC KID ON FIRE. HORROR FACE.}}.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: {{spoiler|Harbinger shows up at the very end to stop Shepard's charge into the beam up to the Citadel. It ''almost'' works.}}.

** {{spoiler|Mordin's [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. [[Killed Mid-Sentence]].}}.

** {{spoiler|The Fall of Thessia. No heroic sacrifice. No bittersweet victory. The homeworld of the most advanced race in the galaxy falls, and there's nothing you could have done to prevent it. Not even Earth or Palaven has been so utterly defeated by the Reaper menace.}}.

** If you miss your chance to save Grissom Academy, you won't ever see Jack... {{spoiler|... until the Cerberus station at the end, where you can find a recording (in a blood-spattered room) of her being operated on. This is bad enough... until you go into the next room and have to kill her in her new Phantom form.}}.

** {{spoiler|If you screw up the quarian-geth situation ''and'' pick the geth over the quarians, then Tali committing suicide after the entire quarian race is killed because of one moronic Admiral.}}.

** {{spoiler|A Shepard who ended up romancing Kelly in the 2ndsecond game can recieve a one-two punch. Kelly reveals that during the entire time she was with you, she was secretly feeding reports about you and the crew to Thethe Illusive Man. If you yell at her for doing this, you find out later that she committed suicide with Cyanide pills. If you forgive her but don't tell her to change her identity, she ends up getting an off screen death after the Cerberus attack. Cerberus shows up at her door and upon confirming her identity unceremoniously executes her with a bullet to the head.}}.

* [[Replacement Scrappy]]: Diana Allers is this for {{spoiler|Emily Wong fans}}. The accusations of [[Internet Backdraft|stunt casting]] haven't helped, either.

** Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani, provided you take the Paragon interrupt. Or even if you don't - ... {{spoiler|she can KNOCK SHEPARD OUT.}}.

** {{spoiler|Udina ''looked'' like this would happen to him -... nowhere in the whole series is he as sympathetic as the first time you meet him in ''Mass Effect 3''. Instead, you get to [[Kick the Son of a Bitch|pop him one]] as he tries to kill the Asari councilor.}}. And he's ''still'' more sympathetic than in the previous two games. He did it for [[Tear Jerker|Earth]].

** When Javik was revealed many fans felt slighted that a someone from a race said to be completely dead could be a squadmember as well as being day one dlcDLC. However, with his dark and angry snarky attitude, surprising character depth, and his [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]] situation, he has grown a fanbase of his own.

** Jack Wall will not be composing ''[[Mass Effect 3]]''. Even with Hollywood composer [[Clint Mansell]] as a replacement this has left some fans very unhappy.

** Many were convinced ''Mass Effect 3'' would follow ''[[Halo 3]]'''s plot to the letter, due to the focus on saving Earth. These complaints are almost entirely gone. Similarly, the introduction of James Vega as a squadmate led many to believing BioWare wanted to pander to the ''[[Gears of War]]'' crowd. As noted in [[Rescued from the Scrappy Heap]], he is a mostly well-liked character now.

** Bioware polled the community on what the 'official' face of FemshepFemShep should be. When the Blonde Shepard won, many in the fandom EXPLODED into a cauldron of angst about how Blondeshep was clearly a result of sexism, patriarchy, and the illuminati which ruined Shepard FOREVER. A second poll was later run, with red-haired Shepard winning.

** The entire ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' squad, [[Popularity Power|save for Tali and Garrus]], getting [[Demoted to Extra]]. Cue fan outrage and accusations of "[[Fan Nickname|Team Dextro]]" getting [[Creator's Pet|unfair favoritism.]].

** Someone leaked an early draft of the script, and the Internet got ahold of it. [[Internet Backdraft|Cue flames.]].

** Two other characters that get a lot of hate are the little boy on Earth and {{spoiler|the Catalyst}}. The kid's hated for poor voice acting and emotional baiting. {{spoiler|The Catalyst}} is hated because the second he shows up, [[Gainax Ending|the ending goes off the rails]]. Plus, {{spoiler|the Catalyst is basically a holographic version of the kid, which certainly doesn't help him}}.

** Grissom Academy. Tons of Cerberus Guardians, Atlas mechs, turrets and shield pylons; enemies spawn quickly, and it's too early in the game to have the gear that makes them easy to counter. Virtually every room you walk into features Shepard in the open and surrounded by enemies in cover, but that ''fucking'' atrium takes the cake. It's ''almost'' made up for by the free Atlas you get later in the level.

** Omnitools being used as a knife has been met with divided opinions, with those who think there's no logical reason for the omniblade to work as a knife (ignoring the fact that it has been used both as a melee weapon and a shield before in the game), or that it doesn't fit in with the aesthetic of ''[[Mass Effect]]''.

** And of course, the leaked "New Game" screen where there are three displayed options -: Action Mode (which automatically chooses conversation reactions, eliminating the RPG aspect), RPG mode (aka "Standard" mode), and Story Mode (which allows players to focus primarily on the storyline, rather than the combat). To say that this generated [[Internet Backdraft]] would be a massive understatement ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah6OAaekaWw#t=06m05s even though footage shows that the difficulty options are separate from narrative options]).

** {{spoiler|The revelation that a [[The Reveal|photograph of Tali]] you can obtain after romancing her is [http://i.imgur.com/qhEJn.jpg just a slightly altered stock photo].}}.

** {{spoiler|Particularly wallbanging due to the fact that Male!Shep, Liara, Samara, Miranda, and Diana Allers all used actual models for their appearance. This has lead some fans to question why Jessica Chobot of IGN was fully rendered into 3D, despite having very little to do with the story, while Tali, your erstwhile companion for three games, was reduced to a stock photo that had been photoshopped.}}.

** Some of the resolutions to the romances from ''Mass Effect 2'' are coming under fire for this; {{spoiler|specifically [[Derailing Love Interests|Jacob's]] and [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|Thane's.]]}}. This is true of many of them, as the time spent with the love interests is short, and most of the dialogue is regular, non-romanced friendly dialogue. It shows.

** {{spoiler|The ending itself which consists of nearly identical scenes with only minor visual alterations for all three choices. In addition, the fact that Shepard's last thought will always be Liara unless you romanced Kaidan or Ashley, no matter what.}}.