Mass Effect 3: Difference between revisions

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** Jenna - the C-Sec informant from a sidequest in the first game - intervenes with her omni-tool to {{spoiler|save Conrad Verner from a Cerberus operative if you did her quest in Me1. Then she and Conrad hook up.}}

* [[Badass Teacher]]: {{spoiler|Jack}}, post-''[[Mass Effect 2]]''.

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* [[BFG]]: The Cain makes a reappearance in the mission to take back Earth. You use it to {{spoiler|drop a Reaper-Destroyer sized AA battery. It only takes one shot, and it homes in.}}

* [[Bag of Spilling]]:

** Played straight; all of your DLC armor from the second game will carry over, but you must purchase all of it once again from vendors on the Citadel. Other pieces of armor must be found during missions throughout the game.

** Averted with the collectibles from the previous game, which are hidden in crates throughout the ship, the Space Hamster can be found in Jack's room at the bottom of engineering scurrying around and, provided she was taking care of them and survived the Collector base, Kelly Chambers can give you your fish back.

** The upgrades you bought for the Normandy (Thanix Cannon, Heavy Ship Armor, Multicore Shielding) transfer as a War Asset bonus.

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* [[Bayonet Ya]]: Shotguns can now accept bayonet modifications to increase their damage as a melee weapon. This is ''awesome.''

* [[Batter Up]]: The batarian classes in multi-player have unique melee animations. If using a two-handed weapon, they involve [http://youtu.be/BasebmHiqIo?t=1m31s clubbing the enemy with the gun as if it were a baseball bat].

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* [[Bayonet Ya]]: Shotguns can now accept bayonet modifications to increase their damage as a melee weapon. This is ''awesome.''

* [[Beam Spam]]: Harbinger attacks the invasion force {{spoiler|in the run to the Conduit}}

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* [[BFG]]: The Cain makes a reappearance in the mission to take back Earth. You use it to {{spoiler|drop a Reaper-Destroyer sized AA battery. It only takes one shot, and it homes in.}}

* [[Big Badass Battle Sequence]]: There are three large-scale battles between opposing forces throughout the game:

** The Reaper invasion of Palaven, the turian homeworld, is preceded by the fight between the Reaper fleets and the turian navy, the most powerful military force in Citadel space.

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** If you have romanced either Tali or Garrus, before the final mission you will find the two of them talking in the Main Battery where they are making bets on the upcoming fight and who will perform better.

* [[Body Horror]]:

** {{spoiler|If you choose the "Control Reapers" ending, as he/she is holding the crucible controls Shepard's face will start to burn and peel apart, spreading to the rest of his/her body.}}

** {{spoiler|The "Synthesis" ending has Shepard slowly dissolve in the Catalyst's beam.}}

** Everything about Reaper-made enemies. Cannibals are mutated batarians using ''whole human bodies'' for [[Arm Cannons]], Brutes are krogan/turian fusions with the head ripped out and replaced with a turian skull.

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* [[The Bus Came Back]]: Liara and the Virmire Survivor were two of the first four party members to be confirmed for the game, after being [[Demoted to Extra]] during ME2.

* [[Bus Crash]]: A few secondary characters, assuming they survived the previous installments.

** {{spoiler|If quarian marine Kal'Reegar survived Haestrom, he ends up dying covering a turian squad's escape.}}

** {{spoiler|If you spared the asari scientist from Virmire Rana Thanoptis in ''[[Mass Effect 1]]'' and ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', she kills a number of high ranking asari officials, and then when incarcerated shoots herself in the head.}}

** {{spoiler|If you spared him in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', Aresh from the Pragia side-mission dies saving a bunch of evacuating civilians from a Reaper attack.}}

** {{spoiler|The reporter Emily Wong is never referred to in the actual game, but the promotional Twitter event before release has her relaying news of the Reaper attack before being mortally wounded and crashing her flying news van into a Reaper.}}

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* [[Catch Phrase]]: EDI's "That was a joke" is back with a vengeance.

* [[Central Theme]]: Casey Hudson describes Mass Effect 3's theme as "victory through sacrifice". Several characters can or will sacrifice themselves for their loved ones or to complete the mission. {{spoiler|And depending on your choices over the series, Thane, Anderson, Lt. Victus, Captain Kirrahe, Mordin, Wrex, Legion, Miranda, Grunt and even Shepard are possible examples.}}

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* [[Chain Lightning]]: The Overload ability [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Or0fly8vA0&feature=player_embedded can be] upgraded to do this.

* [[Chain of Deals]]: What the plot boils down to. The constant [[Continuity Cavalcade]]s, [[Character Development]] and, well, massive galaxy-saving stakes help it feel glamorous (and [[War Is Hell|hellish]] when it needs to).

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* [[Chain Lightning]]: The Overload ability [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Or0fly8vA0&feature=player_embedded can be] upgraded to do this.

* [[The Chains of Commanding]]: One of the primary themes of the game. During a late-game conversation, Shepard can chew out Joker for making a particularly ill-timed joke. Joker then explains that Anderson asked him to look out for the Commander, and that Shepard is under more stress than any other person he knows (to the point of referencing the character's chosen war history from the first game). Shepard can then choose to either forgive Joker or blow him off for attempting to make light of the situation s/he's in.

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* [[Character-Magnetic Team]]: By the time the finale rolls around, Shepard can assemble a truly massive team. Not only can the player character convince almost all the races in the galaxy to help, but you can amass a sizable group of squadmates (including a newly-minted Spectre, an N7 candidate, the feared "Archangel of Omega", a newly-honored Quarian admiral, a {{spoiler|living Prothean}} and an advanced AI capable of giving ground support), but you can have delegates from races come aboard, have past squadmates show up and hang out on your ship, and even bring back two of the engineers from the previous game if you pardon them.

* [[Character Blog]] / [[Day in The Limelight]]:

** Prior to release, the devs released a [http://blog.bioware.com/2011/12/22/shepard-off-duty/ blog post] by Commander Shepard detailing his/her off-duty hours. Naturally, the writing is [[Gender Neutral Writing|vague]] so that it can fit most playthrough styles.

** A Twitter account was made for the [https://twitter.com/#!/AllianceNewsNet Alliance News Network], which was used by Emily Wong to chronicle the Reaper invasion of Earth.

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* [[Character-Magnetic Team]]: By the time the finale rolls around, Shepard can assemble a truly massive team. Not only can the player character convince almost all the races in the galaxy to help, but you can amass a sizable group of squadmates (including a newly-minted Spectre, an N7 candidate, the feared "Archangel of Omega", a newly-honored Quarian admiral, a {{spoiler|living Prothean}} and an advanced AI capable of giving ground support), but you can have delegates from races come aboard, have past squadmates show up and hang out on your ship, and even bring back two of the engineers from the previous game if you pardon them.

* [[Charged Attack]]: A few weapons, such as the Arc Pistol, the Graal Spike Thrower, and the Kishock Harpoon Gun, can be charged up for a more powerful attack.

* [[Chekhov's Armory]]: Played for laughs during Conrad's appearance. If you completed three separate, completely unrelated sidequests in the first game, they will be referenced and used as part of Conrad's dissertation on dark energy. After which Conrad gets into a scuffle, and his survival is dependent on the outcome of yet another unrelated sidequest.

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* [[Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends]]: {{spoiler|[[Beta Couple|Tali'Zorah vas Normandy and Garrus Vakarian]]}}, should you have romanced neither of them.

* [[Clock Tower]]: Coats spent three days sniping [[Our Zombies Are Different|husks]] from inside a broken Big Ben; this was the content of one of the first trailers.

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* [[Concealment Equals Cover]]: Semi-averted. You can take cover behind some seemingly ridiculous objects, such as glass panes (though the glass is implied to be bulletproof). However, cover in this game is split into thick and thin. With high level Armor-Piercing Ammo or penetration weapons mods, a gun can shoot through thin cover. A few extremely powerful rifles can do this without mods. Stick the ammo or the mods on one of these guns, and you can shoot enemies through foot-thick metal walls.

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* [[Cool Versus Awesome]]: A [[Eldritch Abomination|Reaper Destroyer]] vs the [[Sand Worm|Colossal Thresher Maw]].

* [[Collectors Edition]]: The "N7 Collector's Edition". It comes with most of a set (sans assault rifle) of N7 weapons, alternative outfits for squadmates, a [[Team Pet|robotic dog]] for the Normandy, and the "From Ashes" [[Downloadable Content|DLC]] (which otherwise has to be bought separately). Outside the game, it also has a 70-page artwork book, an iron-on/Velcro N7 patch, the game's soundtrack, and a limited edition Dark Horse comic—the first issue of ''Mass Effect: Invasion''.

* [[Command Roster]]: Just like in the other two games, ''Mass Effect 3'' has this.

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** [[Mission Control]]: Hackett for the fleet, Anderson on Earth.

** [[Tagalong Kid]]: Diana Allers, if Shepard chooses to let her report from the ''Normandy''.

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* [[Concealment Equals Cover]]: Semi-averted. You can take cover behind some seemingly ridiculous objects, such as glass panes (though the glass is implied to be bulletproof). However, cover in this game is split into thick and thin. With high level Armor-Piercing Ammo or penetration weapons mods, a gun can shoot through thin cover. A few extremely powerful rifles can do this without mods. Stick the ammo or the mods on one of these guns, and you can shoot enemies through foot-thick metal walls.

* [[Continuity Cavalcade]]:

** If you have imported a save from the previous games, nearly every mission will have you meeting old friends, fighting old enemies, visiting major locations you have spent the last two games only reading about in the codex, and seeing a [[Continuity Nod]] everywhere you look. If you are new to the series, the game will adjust itself accordingly, making such continuity knowledge largely unnecessary.

** Conrad's sidequest specifically brings up three incredibly minor and unrelated sidequests from the first game in such rapid succession and the ending changes based on another, also fairly minor, also unrelated quest.

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* [[Cool Versus Awesome]]: A [[Eldritch Abomination|Reaper Destroyer]] vs the [[Sand Worm|Colossal Thresher Maw]].

* [[Crapsack World|Crapsack Galaxy]]: Reaper invasions will ruin anyone's day, and [[It Got Worse|it is only gonna get worse]].

* [[Critical Status Buff]]: In the main campaign, losing your shields will give you a few seconds of [[Adrenaline Time]].

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** Paragon and Renegade interrupts were rebound from R2 and L2 to R1 and L1 in the [[Play Station 3]]. Might cause you to miss one or two.

** In multi-player, different characters have their powers mapped to different hotkeys.

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* [[Darker and Edgier]]: The number of dead is in the millions already. Trillions more lives are at stake. The developers have said they want to make this game edgier, but still with more humor, as well. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfvo5ueKJY8 Liara is literally darker], as well as personality-wise. [[Word of God]] says it's intentional.

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* [[Darkest Hour]]: {{spoiler|Right after the Thessia mission: Thessia falls to the Reapers, Shepard fails on his/her mission to recover the crucial data to finish The Crucible and the Reapers are curbstomping everywhere, with even the turian fleet now in full retreat from Palaven.}}

* [[Dark Reprise]]:

** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5JvbD2Zc9I An End, Once And For All]" is a [[Lonely Piano Piece]] version of "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCk4RiKH9H0 The End Run]" from ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''.

** Mordin sings "Model Of A Scientist Salarian" during a scene on board the Normandy after the Sur'Kesh mission. He later repeats the same song to keep himself calm as {{spoiler|the Shroud implodes on Tuchanka during the genophage cure dispersal}}. Immediately following that, a reprise of the original ''[[Mass Effect]]'''s menu theme "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w097Q0fZE-A Vigil]" plays.

** During the end credits, a slower (and slightly more unnerving) version of "Leaving Earth" plays as the final track.

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* [[The Dead Have Names]]: The Normandy gets a memorial wall, which lists the names of every single crew member that died over the course of the trilogy.

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* [[Darker and Edgier]]: The number of dead is in the millions already. Trillions more lives are at stake. The developers have said they want to make this game edgier, but still with more humor, as well. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfvo5ueKJY8 Liara is literally darker], as well as personality-wise. [[Word of God]] says it's intentional.

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* [[Darkest Hour]]: {{spoiler|Right after the Thessia mission: Thessia falls to the Reapers, Shepard fails on his/her mission to recover the crucial data to finish The Crucible and the Reapers are curbstomping everywhere, with even the turian fleet now in full retreat from Palaven.}}

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]:

** Joker loves doing this, and EDI tries this, with mixed results...

** Garrus embodies this trope. He is rarely serious but always remains stoic (although his jokes are more of [[Gallows Humor]] variety).

** Javik, of a more jerkassed, angry variety.

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* [[Death From Above]]: {{spoiler|Shepard kills one of the smaller Reapers by calling down orbital strikes from the entire quarian fleet.}}

* [[Death of the Hypotenuse]]: With {{spoiler|Thane}} or {{spoiler|potentially Miranda}} if you cheated on your ME1 love interest with them, in {{spoiler|Miranda's case if you break up with her she will die regardless of the help you provide her.}}

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* [[Death or Glory Attack]]: The new [[Magic Knight|Vanguard]] ability, Nova, takes down your barriers to deliver a powerful [[Shockwave Stomp]]. Fortification (available for certain Soldiers) also buffs your melee damage when deactivated now.

* [[Defcon Five]]: Averted in an email, stating about the traffic emergency and the Alliance declaring SABER One (presumably the equivalent of DEFCON in ME) when the Reapers invaded Earth.

* [[Defector From Decadence]]: It seems that not all of Cerberus is in lockstep with The Illusive Man's apparent [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|vault off of the slippery slope]]. Your War Assets have a whole folder dedicated to "Ex-Cerberus". {{spoiler|Jacob and a bunch of security and science personnel have officially severed ties with the Illusive Man and have holed up on Arrae. Rescuing them adds to your War Assets - the science team helps the Crucible Project, while Jacob becomes an anti-Cerberus consultant for the Alliance.}}

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** Rila, one of Samara's Ardat-Yakshi daughters, {{spoiler|realizes she is indoctrinated and manages to hold onto her own senses long enough to stare down a Banshee and blow them all to hell.}}

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* [[The Dead Have Names]]: The Normandy gets a memorial wall, which lists the names of every single crew member that died over the course of the trilogy.

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* [[Death From Above]]: {{spoiler|Shepard kills one of the smaller Reapers by calling down orbital strikes from the entire quarian fleet.}}

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* [[Death or Glory Attack]]: The new [[Magic Knight|Vanguard]] ability, Nova, takes down your barriers to deliver a powerful [[Shockwave Stomp]]. Fortification (available for certain Soldiers) also buffs your melee damage when deactivated now.

* [[Degraded Boss]]: The Atlas mech is encountered as a boss during Priority: Sur'Kesh. They are encountered on later missions as normal enemies. This can be oddly reversed if the From Ashes DLC is downloaded (See [[Sequence Breaking]]).

* [[Demoted to Extra]]:

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* [[Driven to Suicide]]:

** By repeatedly returning to the hospital and passing by a certain pair of asari, you can hear the story of a spec-ops soldier whose mission failed spectacularly, all because she took a shower and left her gun in her room. {{spoiler|She repeatedly asks for a gun through the whole conversation, which you can grant her on Spectre authority. She uses it to kill herself.}}

** {{spoiler|Tali, if you side with the geth over the quarians, resulting in the genocide of the latter. Or if you fail to [[Take a Third Option]].}}

** {{spoiler|Samara tries to kill herself [[Honor Before Reason|so as not to be forced to kill her last daughter]], but can be prevented by a Paragon interrupt.}}

** {{spoiler|Rana Thanoptis, the asari scientist you spared on Virmire in ''[[Mass Effect 1]]''. It turns out that she did not get out in time to avoid being indoctrinated after all.}}

** {{spoiler|Gavin Archer, should you choose not to tell him the fate of his brother at Grissom Academy. Overcome with guilt over his actions back in the Overlord DLC, he will pull out a pistol and end his own life.}}

** {{spoiler|If Kelly Chambers survived Mass Effect 2, she will later confess to you that she sent communiques to the Illusive Man behind your back concerning all the things she had learned about you and your crew. If you snap at her for doing so, she will break down into ashamed tears, and you will hear about her killing herself by cyanide capsule.}}

** {{spoiler|The Illusive Man, if you Paragon sweet-talk him into figuring out he is indoctrinated. A nice callback to how you could get Saren to do the same in the first game.}}

* [[Dual-Wielding]]: Turians and human Sentinels [https://web.archive.org/web/20150112091812/http://gamerant.com/mass-effect-3-demo-hands-on-impression-tao-97364/ can] Dual Wield omni-blades!

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* [[Eternal Recurrence]]: Said by {{spoiler|the Catalyst}} regarding why the Reapers continually destroy organic life.

* [[Et Tu, Brute?]]: {{spoiler|Getting full salarian support requires betraying the krogan and sabotaging the genophage cure. This may also require killing your old buddies Wrex and Mordin. Mind you, Mordin can be persuaded to assist you, but only if Wrex and Eve are dead: without their moderating influence, he is not confident that the Krogan Rebellions will not happen again. Shepard also has the option to kill Mordin, Legion and the Virmire Survivor for different reasons.}}

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* [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones]]: If you spared Morinth in the previous game, a terminal at the Ardat-Yakshi Monastery reveals that despite her hatred of Samara, Morinth still has a soft spot for her sisters Rila and Falere. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, by the time you get there Morinth is probably well on her way to becoming an indoctrinated slave of the Reapers.}}

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: After {{spoiler|the attempted Cerberus coup on the Citadel}}, two smugglers forced off of Omega can be heard talking in Purgatory. Both of them are disgusted at how clean and nice the club is, but when the turian smuggler suggests they steal military medical supplies while they are stuck on the Citadel, the Human smuggler threatens to turn them ''both'' in if he does anything of the sort. She points out that Earth is dying and she is not going to try to make money off the Alliance ''now'', while they are fighting to save the human race.

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* [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones]]: If you spared Morinth in the previous game, a terminal at the Ardat-Yakshi Monastery reveals that despite her hatred of Samara, Morinth still has a soft spot for her sisters Rila and Falere. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, by the time you get there Morinth is probably well on her way to becoming an indoctrinated slave of the Reapers.}}

* [[Even Mooks Have Loved Ones]]: While raiding a Cerberus base for Reaper tech that they are studying, you can find two journals from "C. Talavi" as he records his experiences as he joins Cerberus; the first is full of excitement at finally being there, the second is sapped of all emotion after he has been [[Slave Mooks|integrated]]. Later, aboard the Citadel you can encounter a Private Talavi, serving in the Alliance, who is unhappy at being assigned to fight Cerberus instead of the Reapers because her younger brother has joined the organization.

* [[Everything's Better with Dinosaurs]]: One sidequest involves finding an alien dinosaur fossil. To give to the salarians. ''Which the salarians then clone. '''And the krogan then ride.''''' [[Missed Moment of Awesome|Of course, you never get to see this.]]