39,327
edits
Mass Effect 3: Difference between revisions
m
update links
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (→Mass Effect 3 contains the following tropes: -> tropelist) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 7:
<!-- %% -->
[[File:Mass-Effect-3-Cover-Art-01 6668.png|frame| ''"If Shepard doesn't bring help soon, there won't be an Earth left to save."'']]
{{quote|''"[[War Is Hell|It's hard enough fighting a war.]] [[The Chains of Commanding|But it's worse knowing no matter how hard you try... you can't save them all.]]"''|'''Commander Shepard'''}}
Line 17:
Several months after [[Mass Effect 2|the second game]], the Systems Alliance has had Shepard brought to Earth and relieved from duty for his/her actions.<ref>either for destroying a batarian relay to delay the Reapers or just for working with Cerberus, depending on whether the player completed the "Arrival" DLC in ''ME2''</ref> Soon after, though, the Reaper fleet finally arrives in the Milky Way and attacks Earth, leaving millions dead and humanity vulnerable to extinction. After escaping the devastation, Shepard is reinstated and embarks on one last mission: unite the other races of the galaxy, build a fleet capable of rescuing the human race from the Reapers, and launch a final battle for the fate of all sentient life.
Like the second game, ''Mass Effect 3'' allows players to import their save files from the other two installments, altering the storyline to match the choices your Shepard made in ''1'' and ''2''. But ''ME3'''s plot varies drastically depending on the save file; over one thousand variables are recorded in each save, and ''every'' decision made can have an impact on the story - even choices made in the original game that were never addressed in the second. In fact, this means there are far more widespread possibilities of what is going to happen in the end and thus some MAJOR story tropes may never come into play for a given playthrough.
In terms of gameplay, combat is still based on the ''Mass Effect 2'' system, but with some new additions, most prominently the ability to [[Unnecessary Combat Roll|roll]] even when out of cover. Shepard also has a new heavy melee attack (this varies depending on class, but most of them use a device known as an omniblade). Combat will be more difficult than the other games, as enemies will now adopt roles like "cover buster" or "suppressor" to force players to occasionally lose health. All types of weapons can now be carried by any player, regardless of class, but a "weapon weight" system has been instituted to preserve the balance between weapons and powers - the number and size of the weapons you carry will affect your power cooldowns, with certain classes getting improved weight for certain guns.
Two elements from the original ''[[Mass Effect 1]]'' - grenades and weapon modifications - return to the series with a slight redesign. Grenades are now a class-specific power, and they're thrown like traditional grenades instead of Frisbees. As for mods, ''Mass Effect 3'' returns to a [[Gun Accessories]] setup (instead of the second game's universal upgrade system); mods you buy or find need to be added at "weapon benches" after you acquire them. Weapons' appearances also change depending on the selected mods.
The power tree from the second game has also been modified: now, instead of evolving a power only once at the end of its life, there are more chances to evolve and more types of evolutions, and certain aspects of powers can now be upgraded directly.
With this game, [[BioWare]] has added an entirely new element known as ''Galaxy at War''. Players can unlock alternate ways to increase Shepard's "galactic readiness level" - the amount of troops, ships and resources the commander can use against the Reapers - by playing different gameplay modes outside the main single-player campaign. The main addition is 4-player co-op; in this mode, none of the protagonists of the series appear, so players will create their own original characters and fight to liberate key positions from Reaper control. However, while using ''Galaxy at War'' can increase the chances of saving the galaxy in the single-player story, participation in it is entirely optional and all but the most [[Golden Ending|golden endings]] are available so long as the right choices were made in the campaign.
The game was released on March 6, 2012 in North America and on March 9, 2012 in Europe. Any qualms purists had over the addition of multi-player were soon forgotten: first when people started playing the game and then when people started reaching [[Gainax Ending|the end of the game]]. Reactions to the endings indicate that ''Mass Effect 3'' is well on its way to creating one of the biggest [[Broken Base]]s in gaming history. After an unprecedented fan outcry, [[BioWare]] announced the [http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/04/05/mass-effect-3-extended-cut-free-dlc-to-expand-ending-this-summer/ Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut], a free DLC pack to be released in the summer that will add some scenes further explaining each ending.
Line 44:
* [[Alien Invasion]]: By [[Abusive Precursors|The]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Rea]][[Sapient Ship|pers]]
* [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us]]: The Reapers invade the Earth and the other species' various home worlds.
* [[Alternate Character Interpretation]]:
** In-universe, {{spoiler|Udina's}} exact motive for siding with Cerberus is debated. The codex makes it fairly clear that he was simply a desperate man willing to take extreme measures to protect his homeworld—however futile the effort may have inevitably been.
** Also in-universe, Joker reveals that he subscribed to the [[Fandom Nod|common fan theory]] that the Council believed in the Reapers and were preparing for them, but weren't letting Shepard in on it because "you know, Cerberus." He ends up being disappointed.
* [[Ancient Astronauts]]: The Thessia mission reveals that {{spoiler|the goddess Athame, one of the oldest asari religions and the goddess that asari characters so frequently swear by, was actually a Prothean. She and her assistants protected the asari from an alien invasion, taught them agriculture and basic mathematics, and used genetic manipulation to grant them biotic abilities. She also left a Prothean beacon on the planet for the asari to find; though they could never fully activate or understand it without the Prothean cipher, their isolated breakthroughs were what allowed the asari to become the most advanced race in the galaxy}}.
Line 53:
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: There is a memorial set up on the ''Normandy'', which lists every crew member (SR-1 and SR-2 both) that dies over the course of the series. As characters die in this game, their names are added to the wall. Characters that ''will'' die (Provided they survived to this game) include {{spoiler|Thane, Legion, Udina and ''David Anderson''}}, and characters which ''may'' die (Depending on player choices in both this and past games) include {{spoiler|Wrex, Jack, Mordin, Tali, Miranda, Captain Kirrahe, the Salarian Councilor, Steve Cortez}} and many others.
* [[Apocalypse How]]: Earth will suffer at least a Class 0: The Codex states that around 1.86 million people are "processed" every day, aside from those killed in fighting the Reapers. It is not the fastest of extinctions (it could take a decade at that rate), but it is an inevitable one.
* [[Are These Wires Important?]]: Ask James to {{spoiler|take out one of the geth cannons on the quarian homeworld}}, and he'll "start [pulling] wires out, see what happens." He then begins to kick the control panel. Repeatedly. Other characters take a more delicate approach to deactivating it.
* [[Arm Cannon]]:
** The Cannibals sport these. ''They are made of whole human corpses.''
Line 60:
* [[Armor-Piercing Question]]: {{spoiler|When you make the decision of whether to let to quarians destroy the geth, Legion asks you the question which your decision should be based around:}}
{{quote|Does this unit have a soul?}}
* [[Artificial Brilliance]]:
** The tactical AI system is meant to punish players who try to go it alone and encourage cooperation between all the classes and specialties.
** Centurions will never shoot their smoke grenades willy-nilly. They fire them at choke points, small enclosed spaces the player's in, or in positions that obscure the entire enemy party.
Line 72:
* [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]]: {{spoiler|Two of the three big choices at the ending lead to this for Shepard. In the Control ending, Shepard effectively merges with the Reaper collective consciousness and takes control of every single one of them. In Synthesis ending, Shepard's essence is absorbed and transmitted across the entire galaxy, making all organics partly synthetic and vice versa.}}
* [[Aside Glance]]: After making his "[[Hunt for Red October|Russian National Anthem]]" joke during the geth dreadnought boarding cutscene, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqt3aW6clAo Joker glances deliberately into the camera].
* [[Attack Its Weak Point]]:
** Cerberus' [[Mini-Mecha|Atlas Mechs]] have a large cockpit that can be shattered with enough hits, but shooting their rear eezo drives will kill them even quicker. Also, while the logical tactic for defeating Cerberus' Guardians is to flank them, it is most expedient to just take aim and [[Boom! Headshot!|shoot them in the head]], [[Subverted Trope|right through]] [[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me|their shields]] viewport with a [[Hand Cannon]] or [[Sniper Rifle]]. If you can't get that shot, their feet are also unprotected. There is even an achievement for doing this 10 times: "Mail Slot."
** How Shepard racks up {{spoiler|his/her first on-foot Reaper kill}}.
* [[Awesome Yet Practical]]: Cryo powers, in a welcome shift from the second game. Several other powers can now be spec'ed to work better on frozen stuff, and enemies will slow down when hit even if they're shielded or armored.
* [[Back for the Dead]]: {{spoiler|Assuming he survived the Suicide Mission, Thane's only possible role in the plot is to die protecting the Salarian Councilor.}}
* [[Badass Army]]: Building an army of the greatest Badasses of the entire galaxy.
Line 124:
** Just before you take control of Shepard for the first and last time {{spoiler|he/she is thrown off his/her feet by a Reaper attack, gets a handgun and is told to move forward by Anderson.}}
** One of the last conversations with Joker aboard the Normandy is him reminiscing about Eden Prime. The camera angles used when Joker and Shepard speak are identical to those used the first time you ever speak to Joker in Mass Effect 1.
** {{spoiler|1=Both this game and the original ''Mass Effect'' end with Shepard facing off against an indoctrinated [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]], who can be talked into realizing his indoctrination and committing suicide, before Shepard comes face to face with the mastermind behind it all as he/she is forced to decide what fate to chose for the galaxy. Just as in the first game, the very last enemy that Shepard engages in combat is a Reaper-controlled turian; Saren in ME1, a Marauder here.}}
* [[Boring but Practical]]: You have got sniper rifles, flashy grenades, energy blades, missile launchers, and magical science powers, yet the most surefire way to deal with enemies in multi-player is to just flank them. You will realize this when [[Artificial Brilliance|they do it to you, too.]]
* [[Boss in Mook Clothing]]: Banshees. Huge barrier and armor amounts cause them to take a ton of damage before going down. Their attacks are also very dangerous, with the strongest being a one hit kill.
Line 137:
** Brutes fit this trope. They love to charge at you and do large amounts of damage if you do not leap out of the way. You even get an achievement if you manage to kill a brute while it is charging.
** The {{spoiler|Reaper}} on Rannoch. Though it does not physically charge you, the mechanics of dodging its main attack (which moves in a straight line), then attacking it while it is vulnerable for a moment are the same.
* [[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.
<!-- %% Don't add the Mass Effect 2 party members here, the Trope doesn't apply to them as they weren't PutOnABus to begin with. -->
* [[Bus Crash]]: A few secondary characters, assuming they survived the previous installments.
Line 147:
** Matriarch Aethyta can tell Liara that one of the things that attracted her to Matriarch Benezia was her impressive bustline. Liara [[Too Much Information|does not really want to know about that]].
** Kenneth Donnelly wants to spend his final days at an asari retirement home because he has seen videos of [[Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!|Benezia and met Samara]].
* [[Call Back]]:
** Returning squadmates frequently make references to missions from the previous two games, remarking how things have changed (or remained the same) over the past two years. These occur even if these squadmates were not present for the original mission.
** In one of Shepard's conversations with EDI, she questions Shepard about the behavior of some prisoners of the Reapers, and Shepard asks her if "submission is preferable to extinction." Saren had asked Shepard this same question in the first game.
Line 171:
* [[Cherry Tapping]]: It is possible to kill even high level enemies by punching them repeatedly. In fact, at normal difficulty, Soldier!Shep can punch an enemy's shields out completely with a few hits, if s/he is willing to take the gunfire.
* [[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.
* [[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.
* [[Cool Versus Awesome]]: A [[Eldritch Abomination|Reaper Destroyer]] vs the [[Sand Worm|Colossal Thresher Maw]].
Line 226:
** Most of the ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' squad members fall here. Garrus and Tali are the only ones to return as full squad members and most only appear in optional, albeit somewhat long and involved, side missions, although a few ({{spoiler|Mordin and Legion; Miranda and Thane to some extent}}) play more significant roles.
** Harbinger. Remember how much of a [[Large Ham]] he was in the last game? Because he does not even have ''lines'' in this one.
* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: The plot accounts for the consequences of nearly everything Shepard has and has not done over the course of both prequels, including DLC content, and brings characters in and out of narrative based on whether you recruited them, helped them, left them to their own devices, or got them killed during the Suicide Mission. For vital plot quests, stand-ins will take the place of important characters that are missing. Even acknowledged bugs from the previous game have a place in the game's narrative: Conrad Verner may apologize for claiming that you pulled a gun on him even though you did not, as he was just under a lot of stress at the time.
* [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]: Literally. {{spoiler|Harbinger's unexpectedly accurate beam attack puts an end to the tentatively optimistic tone of the final battle.}}
* [[Died in Your Arms Tonight]]: {{spoiler|If Miranda succumbs to her wounds from Kai Leng she dies in Shepard's arms; if you were in a romance with her, they admit their love and kiss one last time just before she dies.}}
Line 259:
* [[Easter Egg]]: Bioware has said that there are secret Kinect voice commands that they leave for players to discover. For example, saying [[Evil Dead|"boomstick" switches to the shotgun]].
* [[Eating the Eye Candy]]: Should you {{spoiler|continue a relationship with Kaidan before the Cerberus Coup mission}}, Fem!Shep will grab an eye-full of Kaidan's butt as they both board the Normandy after you re-recruit him.
* [[Elevator Action Sequence]]: After Kai Leng and some Phantoms board an elevator, Shepard's team opens the opposite shaft and rides up after him. You have to disable Leng's elevator (and the one he takes after that) while fending off Cerberus troops. On the upside, take the power conduits out fast enough and you can send the opposition plummeting.
* [[Elite Mooks]]:
** The Nemesis and Phantom are both examples of this. They work together, with the former, a fast-moving sniper with no melee attacks to speak of, working to pin you down so the latter, a biotic ninja armed with a cloaking device, a fancy sword, a seriously powerful handgun, and [[Dodge the Bullet|fancy acrobatics]] can sneak up to you to deliver the [[One-Hit Kill|killing blow]].
** The geth have rocket troopers and pyros. They have the same combat and even teamwork dynamic as the Cerberus Phantoms and Nemeses, down to the melee specialists being tougher than the ranged attackers. The only real difference is that the pyros only have short-ranged attacks.
* [[Elites Are More Glamorous]]:
** As in the previous games, the main character is a member of an elite government organization granted nearly unlimited authority and a background in human special forces projects.
** The multi-player centers around a team of player-controlled special forces operatives.
* [[Emergency Weapon]]: The omniblade function of the omnitool is explicitly stated in the Codex to be such for Alliance marines. The program was a firmware update that was pushed out as standard issue to Alliance omnitools to deal with the threat of multiple husks at close range. It uses the omnitool's minifacturing feature to quickly "forge" a single-use, [[Absurdly Sharp Blade|Absurdly Sharp]], diamond blade, suspended in a [[Minovsky Physics|mass effect field]] to compensate for the material's brittleness, and [[Power Glows|highlighted with holograms]] so the wielder can see the otherwise nearly transparent blade. The codex also states that more technically minded soldiers are known to make alterations to the default program, customizing the blade to their own ergonomics and fighting practices, or adding effects such as [[Elemental Powers|a sheath of explosive, poison, or super-cooled gas]] to the blade. This is reflected in game play by different classes having different visual effects for their omniblade.
* [[Empty Room Psych]]: Just because you are allowed to explore every room of the ''Normandy'' now (compared to ''2'' granting you access to areas as you recruited squadmates) does not mean they will all be filled. Life Support, notably, remains empty through the end of the game.
* [[Empty Shell]]: One of the conversations you can listen in on is an argument over whether a man who is essentially brain dead, but is being kept alive by a VI implanted in his head, is truly alive or not. {{spoiler|In the final assault on Cerberus, the same conversation can be had for '''''you'''''; Shepard discovers a video archive of his/her reconstruction by Cerberus, and can wonder if he/she is not ''really'' Commander Shepard, but is just Shepard's body being driven around by a VI that Cerberus cooked up. Whichever party member is with you will vehemently disagree}}.
* [[End of an Age]]: {{spoiler|The mass relays are wiped out in all endings, breaking the Reaper cycle but also ending any realistic notion of interstellar travel.}}
* [[Enemy Chatter]]: The Cerberus troops give constant updates of their situation to each other. The Marauders (turians husks) also chatter in some kind of mechanical language that sometimes seems to contain barely understandable words like "destruction."
* [[Enemy Mine]]: Basically many of the other alien species from the series who have had major issues with each other as well as humans attempt to put aside their differences to take down a common enemy. How well they manage get along however, depends on the choices made.
{{quote|''I never thought I would say this to the human navy, but we need you.'' -''[[Fantastic Racism|Batarian]] Commander.''}}
Line 286:
** If you get enough war assets, you find out that {{spoiler|the Illusive Man}} was right, and it is possible to {{spoiler|control the reaper, although it was not possible for ''him'' to do it.}}
* [[The Faceless]]: All human player characters in multi-player wear helmets that completely conceal their face.
* [[Faceless Goons]]: All the Cerberus troops conceal not only their face, but their entire body from head to toes in armor. {{spoiler|This hides that the experiments done on them have given them a husk-like appearance.}}
* [[Fan Disservice]]: Banshees. Never has a naked asari been less appealing.
* [[Fantastic Racism]]:
** EDI observes that the majority of batarian refugees fleeing into Citadel space are a lot less intolerant of humans than they were before. She speculates that with the collapse of their government and its [[Big Brother Is Watching|totalitarian rule]] they no longer feel as compelled to tow the party line set out by their [[Fantastic Caste System|ruling caste]] that they should hate humans.
** Javik, though he can come around a bit. In the days of the Prothean Empire most of the races now ruling the galaxy were in the most nascent stages of sentience and were thus "primitive" when compared to the technologically and biologically advanced Protheans.
** A subtle one on the Citadel. After {{spoiler|Menae}}, you can overhear the asari minding the Citadel Gift Shop on the Presidium Commons telling a customer that all sales proceeds go to helping the turian war effort. The customer asks her if her husband is turian, but the asari (Ereba) says the her husband is actually krogan. The customer then says, lightheartedly, that she hopes he knows who is the enemy, to which Ereba is shocked almost speechless.
* [[Five-Man Band]]:
Line 301:
* [[Flaming Sword]]: The engineer's version of the omniblade is on fire.
* [[Flanderization]]: In-Universe example, the Shephard VI that Mouse made in the previous game is now available for interactions. However, since the VI is so simplistic it takes the basic personality of Paragon!Shep or Renegade!Shep and blows them way out of proportion. The VI "brags" that it can predict what the actual Shepard would say with 7% accuracy. Shepard even lampshades it him/herself by complaining about how "I don't really sound like that...do I?"
* [[Flash Step]]:
** What asari characters do, instead of rolling in Multiplayer, at the cost of [[Cast From Hit Points|draining some energy from their barriers]].
** A favorite trick of the Banshees, which is particularly problematic given their ability to insta-kill you at close range.
** The Vanguard's Biotic Charge basically is a combination of this and [[Foe-Tossing Charge]].
Line 310:
** In a direct [[Call Back]] to the first game, Liara made plans for very detailed instructions on who the Reapers are and how to fight them them so various time capsules can be put in place in the event they do not win and any future species are able to recover the vital information.
** Javik, the Prothean Avatar of Vengeance, was to wait out the extinction of the Prothean Empire with one million other Protheans in stasis pods hidden on Eden Prime, intending to awake once the Reapers had returned to dark space, then uplifting and conscripting the primitive races (Humanity and contemporaries) to re-arm for the next cycle's end. Unfortunately, Reaper assaults on the bunker damaged their sensor equipment and the VI managing the stasis pods felt that it was too dangerous to wake the pods without being sure that the Reapers had left, so it decided to keep all pods active until a new species discovered them. As time progressed and power began to run out, the VI deactivated the pods one by one until only Javik was left alive to be woken by Shepard.
* [[Flunky Boss]]: Kai Leng. In the first fight, he is backed up by a single gunship, and in the second he is helped by Assault Troopers.
* [[Foe-Tossing Charge]] / [[Punched Across the Room]]: Krogans in multiplayer can do this as their 'heavy' attack and will cue [[Oh Crap]] reactions from foes who see them coming.
* [[Foreshadowing]]: In Shepard's dreams, the dream always ends with the boy burning, but the final dream ends with {{spoiler|Shepard seeing him/herself burning alongside with the boy. The Catalyst takes the form of that boy during the ending, all of which feature Shepard burning along with it.}}
Line 317:
** {{spoiler|The Catalyst appears as the boy from Shepard's dreams.}}
* [[For Science!]]: Dr. Brynn Cole, a defecting Cerberus scientist, explains that "science must never bow to tyranny." One of the reasons she and other Cerberus scientists left the organization, apart from [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|the Illusive Man's aggresive contract terminations]], was because they wanted to pursue their research as they saw fit.
* [[Fossil Revival]]: One mission has requires searching for fossils to resurrect a once dead dinosaur species called the Kakliosaur. Shepard even says he found the fossil encased in amber.
* [[Fragile Speedster]]: Asari, drell. The drell have the fastest movement speed and the asari have the best dodge move, but they both have below average defenses to compensate.
* [[Fusion Dance]]: So, ever want to find out what a krogan + a turian would look like, or a batarian + human? As [[Our Zombies Are Different|husks]]? Well, you're going to find out.
Line 336:
'''Shepard''': *[[Beat]]* ''Really?'' }}
* [[Genocide Dilemma]]:
** You have to choose between the total extermination of either the geth or the quarians at the hands of the other over the skies of their homeworld, {{spoiler|However, it is possible to [[Take a Third Option]], but it will be very difficult to get the correct condition that allows you to do so.}}
** If you choose the ending in which {{spoiler|Shepard (possibly) survives, you'll be sacrificing EDI and the geth.}}
* [[Giant Mook]]: The Brute, Atlas and Geth Primes.
Line 355:
* [[Grand Finale]]: The end of Shepard's story.
* [[Gravity Screw]]: The mission aboard {{spoiler|the geth dreadnought}} has you walking through the destroyed remnants of a docking extension tube on the ship, and sometimes the only footholds to move forward are on the ceiling.
* [[Grenade Spam]]:
** The gold challenges on multiplayer have had quite a few recognize this in effect; it in fact led to the creation of the trope page.
** As well as normal grenades, Centurions have smoke grenade spam, using two or three at a time to block your vision, in between throwing normal grenades. Rinse and repeat when the smoke clears as many times as they take to die, it could be three or four cycles. ''That's at least twenty four grenades they're carrying, a single soldier.''
* [[Grey and Grey Morality]]:
** The geth vs. quarian war. The geth just wanted to evolve on their own, while the quarians feared that the geth would rebel and kill them all off. Talking to Legion and Tali sheds a lot of light on this in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', and your decisions will affect the final outcome.
** Cure the genophage? You will need to do that to get the krogans to support the turians, who will then in turn help Earth. But the salarians are against it because of the Krogan Rebellions 1500 years ago, and how they proved to be a great menace to the galaxy. {{spoiler|However, Eve and Wrex promise to sort out the differences and learn from their ancestor's mistakes should you choose the Paragon route to cure it.}}
** There is no clear-cut Paragon or Renegade ending choice, and the game goes out of its way to ensure that. {{spoiler|Destroying the Reapers is done by Anderson in the preceding cutscene, but that area and that cutscene are colored red, and choosing that results in the death of EDI, the geth, and every AI and VI in the galaxy. Commanding the Reapers is done by the Illusive Man in that cutscene, but the highlights there are blue, no races get sacrificed, and apparently Shepard just sends the Reaper fleet back out of the galaxy without causing any further destruction. Synthesis does not result in any genocide or Reaper manipulation, but involves ''forcibly rewriting the entire fabric of life's existence'' without any input or opinion from...well, anybody. (Green) ALL of them involve destroying the mass relay network, so even if you have figured out which ending seems most appropriate, you are still causing something almost everyone can agree is problematic.}}
* [[Guide Dang It]]: The exact conditions needed to unlock the [[Golden Ending]] in the {{spoiler|quarian/geth}} storyline. ''No-one'' is sure of what the full list entails, and the conditions listed in the official strategy guide have been proven inaccurate.
* [[Guilt Based Gaming]]: More so than either of the previous games. ''Besides'' the ability to [[Et Tu, Brute?|kill off several close allies]] if you so choose, missing the Grissom Academy side-quest leads to {{spoiler|Jack being kidnapped and experimented on by Cerberus AGAIN after she had finally managed to build a life for herself. You get to hear records of her being tortured when you hit the Cerberus base... shortly before having to kill the Phantom they turned her into.}}
* [[Gun Accessories]]: Gun modifications return, and each one visibly attaches to the weapon (if external, like a scope) or causes changes in the weapon coloration (if internal, like a heat sink expansion).
Line 392:
* [[Hotter and Sexier]]: The game's launch trailer features a blurb from IGN that says ''Mass Effect 3'' is the sexiest game in the series, and a minute later we get glimpses of a sex scene featuring Ashley and Shepard. Also, one of the casual outfits that FemShep can wear around the Normandy is a sleeveless, low-cut, form-fitting cocktail dress.
* [[Humongous Mecha]]: Multiple battles take place on foot against Destroyer-class Reapers, which are 200-600 meter tall ships that are built out of the "lesser" species of each cycle.
* [[Hypocrite]]:
** The salarian dalatrass accuses Shepard of being a bully when the Commander, Victus & Wrex/Wreav tell her that unless she gives them the location of the krogan female immune to the Genophage, they'll leave the salarians to the Reapers all because she refuses to give into the ''one'' demand the krogan have in exchange for their assistance. {{spoiler|Before the mission to cure the Genophage, the dalatrass contacts Shepard & threatens to withold salarian support unless Shepard sabotages the cure}}.
** {{spoiler|The asari government. They claim that the asari are the most advanced race in the galaxy due to inherent virtues, but they actually have the ''only'' intact Prothean Beacon in the galaxy.}}
Line 418:
* [[It's Popular, Now It Sucks]]: In-universe, Joker kids about this concerning Cerberus {{spoiler|after the botched coup}}, saying how he was all for them when they were vigilantes helping the helpless, but now they're a "bit too mainstream...and evil."
* [[Journey to the Center of the Mind]]: In this case, {{spoiler|the center of the geth hive mind}}.
* [[Kick the Dog]]:
** Just to make it one hundred percent clear who the bad guys are, a Mini-Reaper is shown shooting down unarmed civilian transports, one of which had a little boy on it.
** The Illusive Man presents himself as [[Necessarily Evil]] but still has a few moments of utterly needless cruelty. During the Mars mission, he {{spoiler|orders Eva to "finish" / "dispose of" the Virmire Survivor}}. During the endgame, he shows off his new power by {{spoiler|forcing Shepard to '''shoot Anderson'''.}}
Line 438:
** Cortez mocks the logic behind setting up the armory on the command deck and not the shuttle bay.
** After saving Primarch Victus, he mentions Garrus retired to the battery, "Something about...'calibrations'..." to which shepard replies "That Sounds like Garrus."
* [[Last-Name Basis]]:
** If Shepard and Dr. Chakwas decide to share another bottle of brandy, [[Lampshade Hanging|they note that neither of them has ever called the other by their first name.]] Chakwas feels using Shepard's first name would be a disservice to everyone she is fighting for... and if that makes no sense, it is just a lady's prerogative. Shepard can call her Karin, though.
** Jacob mentions that {{spoiler|his girlfriend wants to name their baby after Shepard... as in, naming the kid Shepard.}} He intends to talk her out of it, though.
* [[Last of His Kind]]: Javik, the [[Precursors|Prothean]] squad member from the "From Ashes" DLC pack.
Line 448:
* [[Last-Second Word Swap]]: Jack. Repeatedly.
* [[Late Arrival Spoiler]]: None less than the Xbox Live frontend is already spoiling the fact that From Ashes gives you a Prothean squad member.
* [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]:
** The kid in the beginning that says "You can't help me." {{spoiler|and dies shortly thereafter regardless of what you do}} seems to be talking to the player that you cannot save everyone.
** A scene that follows continues this, with Shepard having the option to express just that.
Line 454:
** Conrad references the save import bug from the second game, apologising for claiming that Shepard held a gun to his face when they never did so, he thinks he was under a bit of stress at the time.
* [[Left Hanging]]: {{spoiler|The ending does not reveal the fate of the allied armies, the state of the galaxy, where the Normandy landed, or even the true fate of Shepard. According to the writers, it was to leave speculation open.}}
* [[Legion of Lost Souls]]: In a manner with the squads in multiplayer. They are ostensibly Systems Alliance units and operate under Alliance command, with most of their members being human soldiers and other military specialists, but they also include volunteers and mercenaries from a variety of other races, such as turians, asari, krogan, drell, and quarians. Now with the Resurgence Pack, geth and batarians join the party.
* [[Like a Son to Me]]: {{spoiler|Anderson will refer to Shepard as either "son" (Male) or "child" (Female) after saying [[So Proud of You|how proud he is of what you have accomplished]].}}
* [[Limit Break]]: What krogan characters get in multi-player after killing three enemies in close succession with melee attacks. What exact bonuses are given [[RPG Elements|depends on your progression]].
Line 476:
** {{spoiler|''Samara'', [[Offing the Offspring|of all people]], is a [[Mama Bear]] in this, assuming she survived ''2''. She is perfectly willing to take on an entire building full of Banshees on her own in order to rescue her two remaining daughters -- and then to [[Driven to Suicide|shoot herself in the head]] to protect her last daughter from [[Honor Before Reason|herself/the Justicar Code]].}}
* [[Match Maker Quest]]: {{spoiler|Shepard can encourage EDI and Joker to become a couple and can do the same for Ken and Gabby}}.
* [[McNinja]]: Cerberus Phantoms. Also, drell characters from multi-player 'roll' like ninjas and get a speed bonus.
* [[Meaningful Echo]]:
** If Miranda survived the previous game, she will return and be searching for her missing sister. Shepard will caution her to be careful, to which she will respond "No promises." {{spoiler|If you contact her before the final charge on Earth, they flip it around}}.
Line 515:
* [[Nail'Em]]: The Kishock Harpoon Gun, which will pin enemies to walls if its projectiles are charged enough.
* [[Neck Lift]]: Legion will do this to {{spoiler|Shepard if you let the quarians wipe out the geth.}}
* [[Nerf]]:
** The Phalanx Pistol went from a [[Hand Cannon]] that outdid the previous [[Hand Cannon]] with 1.5x more damage to being only slightly more damaging than the basic pistol. The previous Hand Cannon is now practically a [[Sniper Pistol]].
** The Mattock still retains its power, but now has a max fire rate cap. Fortunately, the Raptor sniper rifle effectively fills its former niche.
Line 548:
{{quote|Liara: Oh. That was a joke, wasn't it?
EDI: No. A joke has a specific structure. This was "messing with you". }}
* [[Nuke'Em]]: Glyph, Liara's drone assistant from the Shadow Broker base, reveals that one colony detonated its nuclear arms on itself [[Taking You with Me|in an attempt to take the invading reapers down with them.]] On Earth however, the Reapers were [[Genre Savvy]] enough to attack the nuke silos and take the option off the table early into the invasion.
* [[Oblivious to Love]]: If they are both assigned to the geth dreadnought mission, Garrus and Tali can discuss the turian chocolates that Dr. Michel gave to Garrus. Tali reads into it, but Garrus does not seem to realize that Dr. Michel might have been trying to send a signal.
* [[Odd Friendship]]: Tali and Legion actually refer to each other fondly, Tali in particular talks about her whole perspective being shifted because they kept in contact with eachother between ''ME 2'' and ''ME 3'' (until Legion's disappearance).
Line 599:
'''Shepard:''' [[Bond One-Liner|Never mind, I'll tell them myself]]. }}
* [[Preorder Bonus]]:
** Gamestop pre-orders include "Defender Armor" and an N7 Valkyrie Assault Rifle (the only weapon not covered by the Collector's Edition weapon pack).
** EA's Origin network offers the AT12 Raider Shotgun.
** Others get the Argus assault rifle, which is also a midrange weapon.
Line 611:
* [[Pyrrhic Victory]]: Even the best possible ending is this as no matter what you do, {{spoiler|the mass relay network is destroyed}}. However, if you take your time to do the [[Sidequest|side quests]], the losses will still be somewhat less severe.
{{quote|'''Casey Hudson:''' If you just rip straight down the critical path and try and finish the game as soon as you can, and do very little optional or side stuff, then you can finish the game. You can have some kind of ending and victory, but it’ll be a lot more brutal and minimal relative to if you do a lot of stuff.}}
* [[The Quisling]]: {{spoiler|Udina decides to team up with Cerberus, and is responsible for the Cerberus raid on the Citadel, and can kill off most of the Council if you don't stop him.}}
* [[Rage Quit]]: Multiplayer has experience and money earned for kills, completing objectives, and surviving waves. The player forfeits this if they quit, discouraging this trope.
* [[The Red Planet]]: Mars is visited very early in the game.
Line 654:
** Provided your War Assets were high enough, {{spoiler|Shepard wakes up at the end of the "Destroy" ending}}.
* [[Sequence Breaking]]: The Atlas Mech is supposed to be first encountered at the conclusion of the mission on Sur'Kesh, where it receives an introductory cinematic and serves as the boss of the mission. However, the Grissom Academy becomes available after the previous mission to Palaven, and the Atlas appears as a much more mundane mid-level boss. The DLC mission "From Ashes" can likewise make the Atlas an enemy before its intended introduction, as it is available as soon as you regain free control of the ''Normandy''.
* [[Sharpened to a Single Atom]]: According to party banter, the Phantoms are carrying monomolecular swords.
* [[Shockwave Stomp]]: The Vanguard's new unique power, Nova.
* [[Shooting Gallery]]: In the Spectre's office on the Citadel.
Line 666:
** Talk to Cortez enough and he'll get some of his old fighter pilot buddies to fight for you. They're called "Rogue Fighter Pilots" in the terminal, but they left the Alliance on good terms, so how did they go rogue-[[Rogue Squadron|ohhhhhhhh...]]
** The [[Call Back|big stupid jellyfish]] in Kasumi's sidequest is named [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|"Zymandias"]]... aka [[Look on My Works Ye Mighty and Despair|"Regards the Works of the Enkindlers in Despair"]]. He also executed his plan ''before'' revealing it to you, not unlike [[Watchmen (comics)|a certain other Ozymandias]].
* [[Show Within a Show]]: [[Running Gag|Blasto the Hanar Spectre]] eventually seems to have had [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyK8nopOwqs a full blown radio drama] made about him. Inspired by [[Lethal Weapon]], no less.
* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]: In the game's launch trailer, the Illusive Man warns Shepard not to interfere with his plans. Shepard's response? "Go to Hell!"
* [[Sigil Spam]]: Cerberus, who badly abused this trope in ''Mass Effect 2'', now [[Up to Eleven|take it to the next level]]. The inside of their 'secret' bases, their weapons, their armour, and their vehicles are stamped with their logo, and all their soldiers sport the distinctive black, white and yellow paint job. Justified {{spoiler|since Cerberus is done with secrecy, unleashing the full might of their forces on the galaxy to fulfill the [[The Chessmaster|Illusive Man's]] final plan.}}
Line 714:
Fine! If you're so enamored of that object, then I suggest you get your own feces analyzer.
We've already been down that road. No more. }}
* [[Storming the Castle]]: The attack on Cerberus HQ.
* [[Story-Driven Invulnerability]]: Dr. Eva is impossible to kill during the sequence where you're chasing her due to her instantly regenerating shields.
* [[Suddenly Voiced]]: '''[[Inverted Trope]]'''. Remember how Harbinger boasted and taunted at Shepard ''repeatedly'' in ''Mass Effect 2''? Despite being mentioned a few times and [[One-Scene Wonder|even appearing once]], he has ''no lines whatsoever'' in ''Mass Effect 3''.
Line 723:
** If Legion did not survive the Suicide Mission or he was sold to Cerberus, his role in the Geth-Quarian War will be assumed by a nondescript "Geth VI" constructed in Legion's likeness. Shepard will even note that the VI looks very similar to the geth they retrieved in the previous game if Legion was never turned on. This does not count Legion's appearance {{spoiler|as a "Geth Assassin" at the Cerberus Base}} if you sold him previously.
* [[Sword and Gun]]:
** What Cerberus Phantoms are equipped with. However, [[Never Bring a Knife to
** The addition of the omniblade makes all Soldiers, Engineers, Infiltrators and Sentinels equipped with this combo.
* [[Stylistic Suck]]: In-Universe with ''Blasto 6''.
* [[Summon Bigger Fish]]: When the heavy artillery does not make it to the fight with the Reaper on Tuchanka, you {{spoiler|go to an ancient krogan temple and start the device that calls the Mother of all Thresher Maws!}}
* [[Supporting Leader]]: Several, including Urdnot Wrex (or Wreav), the members of the Quarian Admiralty Board, and Primarch Victus as you try to get entire alien races to unite and assist Earth. Holding down the fort until these allies can show up are Admiral Anderson, who stays behind on Earth, and Admiral Hackett, who seems to be the de facto leader of the joint species fleet in the end.
* [[Take a Third Option]]:
** The conflict with helping out the krogan or sabotaging the genophage cure in order to garner salarian support for the war effort. Depending on your actions in previous games, as well as the choices you make in this one, you can still get support from both (albeit a little later with the salarians) {{spoiler|once Cerberus attacks the Citadel and you end up saving the salarian councilor, they largely back you up}}.
** During the geth/quarian conflict, you are constantly forced to choose one side over the other, with both sides promising various things. Depending on what you did in previous games, Shepard can choose to save both races instead of letting one side or the other get wiped out. Which is pretty good for both races, not to mention for Shepard's war effort and struggle to find allies.
Line 747:
** Tabloid reporter Khalisah Al-Jilani [[Took a Level In Badass|has learned from her]] [[Running Gag|previous encounters]] with Shepard: "Not this time, bitch!"
** After the final fight with {{spoiler|Kai Leng}}: "This is for {{spoiler|Thane/Kirrahe/Miranda}}, you ''son of a bitch''!"
* [[This Is Gonna Suck]]: Major Coats's expressions after killing the husk and looking up at the Reapers screams this.
* [[This Is Sparta]]: Yes, it's in all caps in the game subtitles, too:
{{quote|'''Wrex:''' MY NAME IS URDNOT WREX AND THIS IS MY PLANET! }}
* [[Those Two Guys|Those Two Girls]]:
Line 754:
** Should they survive ME2, Gabby and Ken can come back on board to join Adams in engineering after you give a Spectre stamp of approval on pardoning them for their previous Cerberus association.
* [[Thrown Out the Airlock]]:
** Javik threatens to do this to Joker after being continually referred to as "[[Ascended Meme|Prothy The Prothean]]". He's also in favor of spacing Legion due to his views on synthetics.
** If you sabotaged the genophage cure in a gameplay where Wrex survived Virmine, {{spoiler|you will need to kill Wrex on the Citadel when he discovers your betrayal. Bailey will tell Shepard that they will have to do this to Wrex's body, as they simply do not have time or resources for a funeral or even a coffin large enough to fit him.}}
* [[Time Abyss]]: The Reapers have been active for ''billions'' of years. {{spoiler|The Catalyst is older than the Reapers themselves and has watched countless cycles of life evolving and being destroyed}}.
Line 767:
* [[Unexpected Successor]]: If he survived the events of "Bring Down The Sky" in the first game, Balak goes from being the leader of a small batarian terrorist group to {{spoiler|the highest-ranking member of the Hegemony}}, due to the Reapers wiping out the entirety of the upper leadership on Khar'shan.
* [[The Unfought]]: {{spoiler|Since ''Mass Effect 2'', Harbinger was built up as the [[Big Bad]] of the series, and is stated to be personally leading the Reaper attack on Earth. However, the closest you get to fighting him is him blasting you with a laser as you rush towards the relay to the Citadel.}}
* [[Unique Enemy]]: The {{spoiler|Legion Assassin}} enemy, which is encountered during Priority: Cerberus Headquarters if {{spoiler|Legion was given to Cerberus in Mass Effect 2}}. Also, to an extent, the {{spoiler|Jack}} and {{spoiler|Morinth}} enemies encountered during Priority: Cerberus Headquarters and Priority: Earth, respectively. These two enemies are just named Phantom and Banshee enemies with no difference beside name though.
* [[Use Your Head]]: Krogan player characters in multiplayer use head-butting as their "weak" melee attack, in place of the [[Pistol Whip]] or gun butt of non-krogan characters.
* [[The Usual Adversaries]]: Cerberus. The Reapers are the main threat, and their Husks are the primary mooks you have to fight, but Cerberus hounds Shepard and the Normandy crew every Goddamn step of the way.
Line 793:
* [[Wham! Episode]]: The Thessia mission. {{spoiler|Not only does the homeworld of the galaxy's most prosperous species fall, it turns out that the asari owe their prosperity to Prothean technology that they have been hoarding to themselves, in blatant violation of their own laws against withholding such technology. For the first time in the whole series, Shepard flat-out ''fails'' thanks to Kai Leng's dirty tricks. It is very quiet on the Normandy afterwards.}}
* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]:
** During the mission to Sur'Kesh, Cerberus attacks the STG facility and both Mordin and Shepard's squad mention that Cerberus must have been helped by a [[The Mole|mole]] in STG to get there that quick, but this is never brought up again later and whoever it was remains unrevealed.
** On the mission to Benning, Admiral Hackett explains that Cerberus is officially denying their involvement and saying that the personnel involved are rogue operatives. Hackett states that this time he is actually inclined to believe Cerberus, since wanton destruction is not their usual style (They normally have ''some'' goal, no matter how obtuse or abhorrent it might be). After this mission, the idea of rogue Cerberus agents, or what they might have been planning, is never brought up again.
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: No matter how you resolve the genophage situation, someone is going to chew you out for it:
Line 801:
* [[What You Are in the Dark]]: The Salarian Dalatrass offers the full aide of the Salarian Union in building the Crucible, provided you sabotage the Genophage cure. She specifically points out that nobody will know what you did, as the countermeasures they have in place will initially make it look like the cure was successful, and when the continued presence of the Genophage is discovered it will look like a good-faith error. {{spoiler|Depending on which characters have survived this and past games, and which decisions you make here, your complicity ''can'' be discovered, leading to [[What the Hell, Hero?|a severe criticism of Shepard]].}}
* [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?]]: Garrus when he sees Kirrahe's sticky grenade launcher.
* [[Where It All Began]]:
** The "From Ashes" DLC pack adds a mission about a Prothean artifact on Eden Prime, the location of the first mission in the original game. Liara flat-out says this is "where it all began" for them.
** The finale {{spoiler|takes place on the Citadel, on the underside of where the first game ended, once again trying to open the arms.}}
* [[Working with the Ex]]:
| |||