Mass Effect 3
If you're not a Mass Effect fan, no need to read further. You'll probably be bored. Oh, and warning... here there be Spoilers.
I just finished my first play through of Mass Effect 3. There will be more. I have 3 more characters with complete histories from ME1, and several begun in ME2. But this was my first Character, and the one to whom I felt the most attachment, and I find myself very melancholic at this, the ending of her Story, though it ended well, and feels authentic.
And that's the wacky thing about these games where you import your character from one to the next, recording your pivotal choices along the way. Done right, the emotional investment is way larger than any other video game I've played... maybe even more than most Literature, since she embodies so much of my personal choices. I decided the first time through to purposefully NOT make game decisions meant to exploit the Morality system, but instead made those choices natural to me (I'd save the power gaming for later characters). But, after a short while, I stopped thinking "What would I do?", and started thinking "What would Mila Sheppard do?" She was a real character very quickly.
Details:
Commander Mila Sheppard (female) was a pure soldier, specializing in the sniper rifle. I selected the "Sole survivor" and "Spacer" histories, not really knowing how they effected game mechanics at the time, but the game does a good job of reminding you of those choices, even as late as the ME3 endgame.
She was a Good Girl, in the PC sense. Tolerant, and open. She saved just about anyone that could be saved, and tried to make peace, rather than getting her way. Physically she was blonde, with green eyes, and a face which I attempted to make purposefully Swedish looking. She hooked up with Liara T'Soni, and stayed true to her by refusing all the romantic intrigues of ME2, and reconnected with her love interest later in the series.
But the ME world is hard, and lots of folks die. Looking back to MEI, managed to avoid having to kill a Squad mate (Urdnot Wrex) before the penultimate mission, but shortly thereafter you have to choose a human squad-mate to die... no way around it. And she chose Ashley (for solid Military reasons, as Ashley's skill-set was a duplicate of her own, and thus most expendable).
There were lots of opportunities for Death in ME2, but I played her through several times to insure that by my last game save of MEII, all her squad mates were alive (and even took care to keep some reoccurring characters alive, like Kal'Reegar) Trying so hard to keep them alive got me attached to them as well.
While I was waiting for ME3 to come out, I went back and Read all the ME books. These are actually decent science fiction, especially for books written as a side project to a game franchise. The Books have a difficult tightrope to walk, because they can't mention any of the outcomes of Sheppard's choices. I'm amazed they managed to stay relevant and gripping with that restriction, but they did.
But, now that the climax of the series is here, the author is free to mix and twine the story lines of the Book characters with the Game characters, to good effect for anyone familiar with both. The mention of each, even in a side note or a message read in a PDA on he floor, brought a spark of joy. Alas, I had almost as many pangs of sad regret when they died. ME is a tough universe, but hey, Galactic Apocalypses have high body counts.
A particularly effective moment/technique of the game, are dream sequence cut scene where Sheppard in plagued by the vision of a young boy she was unable to save during the invasion of earth. She is running through a forest, in slow motion, as it sometimes is in dreams, as she tries to catch up to the boy. There are odd shadows or shades standing around, with whisperey voices... and one of those voices was Ashley, the character killed off in MEI. When she finaly does catch up, the boy is consumed in flame.
As the game progressed, and the cut scene occurred again, with minor changes, I now heard other character voices whispering... characters who had just died, in game, making it clear, these are the voices of Sheppard's dead. I presume that if I had lost squad-mates in MEII, I would have heard their voices as well.
The final instance of this cut scene comes just after Sheppard and T'Soni have sex (So, you know shit is about to get real. They always save the sex scenes for just before the final action). But this time, Sheppard catches up to the little boy... to find another Sheppard already there, arm around the boy. Cut to Chasing-Shepard's expression of horror, cut back to Boy-And-Sheppard, and that Shepperd's look of... accusation? And both boy and Sheppard are consumed in flame.
Hell of a for shadowing.
So, in the nostalgic tradition of "Where are they now" post movie credits, here's a "what happened to them" of Mass Effect.
First... the Death Toll, in Chronological order.
-------------------
Ashley Williams. Dead in MEI. Chose to stay and fight to give other squad mates time to set a bomb and escape.
Mordin Solus, the Solarian Genetic Scientists introduced in MEII: Dead. Gave his life to insure the efficacy of his cure for the Genophage. Someone had to stay in the dispersion tower to make sure it got through, and he chose to. His death was pretty poignant.
Thane Krios: Dead, of wounds sustained while protecting Sheppard from Kai Leng, a Cerebus Assassin. The blood loss exacerbated his Kepral's syndrome. He died with his son and Sheppard at his side, saying a prayer for Sheppard.
Councilman Donnel Udina: Dead. Shot by Sheppard durring his Citadel coup attempt. Udina's was an interesting arc... from being an asshole, to earning our grudging respect, to a Tragic figure unable to save Humanity and frustrated by his impotency, to a betrayer, shot down on a shuttle pad.
Legion: 'Dead' (in so far as a synthetic can die). Disperesed his identity throughout the Geth consensus, in order to make the Geth truely Sentient.
Kal'Reegar of the Quarian Marines: Dead. Killed while defending a Turian Communication's Hub (we learned of via ship e-mail, the character had no other part in the game). Kal as a lots of folks favorite recurring character, being voiced by Adam Baldwin of Firefly fame.
Admiral David Anderson: Dead. Died of wounds sustained when Commander Sheppard (under the control of the Illusive Man) shot him in the stomach. Aside from Sheppard, and maybe T'Soni, Anderson was the most 'essential' character to me in the ME Universe, being one of the few threads of continuity between game and book. He first saw action in the first contact war, when human's were first exploring the Galaxy. He was there when Saren (antagonist of MEI) took the first steps that would make him a tool of the Reapers. And he was there at the end, closing his eyes minutes before Sheppard's final choice.
The Illusive Man: Dead. Shot by Sheppard. Damn straight.
And, finally...
Commander Mila Sheppard: Dead. Consumd by the crucible, the ancient tool they expected to use to defeat the Reapers (which also destroyed the Citadel, and every Mass Effect Relay. Given several choices, she sacrificed herself to bring about an end to the Galactic extinction cycle, by creating a synthesis between Synthetic and Organic life.
On happier notes, Characters that came back from ME3, and lived (some are known to have survived, some we presume survived because we did not see their death... but who knows... they last moments are, as I aid, apocalyptic)
Liara T'Soni, escaped on Normandy, and crash landed on a lush planet.
Miranda Lawson: Presumed Survived, having finally killed her father, and saved her sister.
Kaidan Alenko: Presumed Survived.
Garrus Vakarian: Presumed Survived.
Urdnot Wrex: Presumed Survived (and is having kids!)
Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy: Presumed Survived
Jacob Taylor: Presumed Survived (and is starting a familiy)
Grunt: Presumed Survived, though they had a long cut scene that I felt sure was going to be a heroic death.
Samara Presumed Survived, saving one of her Ardnat Yakshi daughters, the other dying to destroy the reapers harvesting the Ardnat Yakshi in their monestary (the third, Morenth, having been killed in ME II)
Zaeed Massani: Presumed Survived
Kasumi Goto: Presumed Survived
Jeff "Joker" Moreau Survived: and in a romantic relationship with EDI, formerly the Normandy SSR2's AI, but who now has a sexy synthetic body.
EDI: As above, survived, with Jeff and Liara T'Soni, the crash landing of the Normandy after the explosion of the Citadel, the Crucible, and the Galactic Relay Network.
Jack: Presumed Survived, and taking care of her class of Biotic Students.
Admiral Steve Hackettt: Presumed Survived
Aria T'Loak: Presumed Survived
Feron : Little contact in game other than e-maisl, Presumed Survived.
James Vega: Introduced in ME3, Presumed Survived.
Javik, the last Prothean: Introduced in ME3, Presumed Survived.
Doctor Karin Chakwas: Presumed Survived.
Conrad Verner: Makes an appearence in ME3, and tries to take a bullet for Sheppard! Presumed Survived.
Captain Kirrahe: The Solarian leader of the special tasks group in MEI, makes a 1 mission appearance in ME3. Presumed Survived.
Kelly Chambers: Sweet sweet Kelly. Makes an appearence, but does not play a significant role in ME3. Can't rejoin Sheppard because of continuing emotion issues caused by trauma Collector capture. Presumed Survived.
Armando Bailey: Hard nosed cop of the Citadel. Promoted to major, and head of C-Sec. Presumed Survived.
I just finished my first play through of Mass Effect 3. There will be more. I have 3 more characters with complete histories from ME1, and several begun in ME2. But this was my first Character, and the one to whom I felt the most attachment, and I find myself very melancholic at this, the ending of her Story, though it ended well, and feels authentic.
And that's the wacky thing about these games where you import your character from one to the next, recording your pivotal choices along the way. Done right, the emotional investment is way larger than any other video game I've played... maybe even more than most Literature, since she embodies so much of my personal choices. I decided the first time through to purposefully NOT make game decisions meant to exploit the Morality system, but instead made those choices natural to me (I'd save the power gaming for later characters). But, after a short while, I stopped thinking "What would I do?", and started thinking "What would Mila Sheppard do?" She was a real character very quickly.
Details:
Commander Mila Sheppard (female) was a pure soldier, specializing in the sniper rifle. I selected the "Sole survivor" and "Spacer" histories, not really knowing how they effected game mechanics at the time, but the game does a good job of reminding you of those choices, even as late as the ME3 endgame.
She was a Good Girl, in the PC sense. Tolerant, and open. She saved just about anyone that could be saved, and tried to make peace, rather than getting her way. Physically she was blonde, with green eyes, and a face which I attempted to make purposefully Swedish looking. She hooked up with Liara T'Soni, and stayed true to her by refusing all the romantic intrigues of ME2, and reconnected with her love interest later in the series.
But the ME world is hard, and lots of folks die. Looking back to MEI, managed to avoid having to kill a Squad mate (Urdnot Wrex) before the penultimate mission, but shortly thereafter you have to choose a human squad-mate to die... no way around it. And she chose Ashley (for solid Military reasons, as Ashley's skill-set was a duplicate of her own, and thus most expendable).
There were lots of opportunities for Death in ME2, but I played her through several times to insure that by my last game save of MEII, all her squad mates were alive (and even took care to keep some reoccurring characters alive, like Kal'Reegar) Trying so hard to keep them alive got me attached to them as well.
While I was waiting for ME3 to come out, I went back and Read all the ME books. These are actually decent science fiction, especially for books written as a side project to a game franchise. The Books have a difficult tightrope to walk, because they can't mention any of the outcomes of Sheppard's choices. I'm amazed they managed to stay relevant and gripping with that restriction, but they did.
But, now that the climax of the series is here, the author is free to mix and twine the story lines of the Book characters with the Game characters, to good effect for anyone familiar with both. The mention of each, even in a side note or a message read in a PDA on he floor, brought a spark of joy. Alas, I had almost as many pangs of sad regret when they died. ME is a tough universe, but hey, Galactic Apocalypses have high body counts.
A particularly effective moment/technique of the game, are dream sequence cut scene where Sheppard in plagued by the vision of a young boy she was unable to save during the invasion of earth. She is running through a forest, in slow motion, as it sometimes is in dreams, as she tries to catch up to the boy. There are odd shadows or shades standing around, with whisperey voices... and one of those voices was Ashley, the character killed off in MEI. When she finaly does catch up, the boy is consumed in flame.
As the game progressed, and the cut scene occurred again, with minor changes, I now heard other character voices whispering... characters who had just died, in game, making it clear, these are the voices of Sheppard's dead. I presume that if I had lost squad-mates in MEII, I would have heard their voices as well.
The final instance of this cut scene comes just after Sheppard and T'Soni have sex (So, you know shit is about to get real. They always save the sex scenes for just before the final action). But this time, Sheppard catches up to the little boy... to find another Sheppard already there, arm around the boy. Cut to Chasing-Shepard's expression of horror, cut back to Boy-And-Sheppard, and that Shepperd's look of... accusation? And both boy and Sheppard are consumed in flame.
Hell of a for shadowing.
So, in the nostalgic tradition of "Where are they now" post movie credits, here's a "what happened to them" of Mass Effect.
First... the Death Toll, in Chronological order.
-------------------
Ashley Williams. Dead in MEI. Chose to stay and fight to give other squad mates time to set a bomb and escape.
Mordin Solus, the Solarian Genetic Scientists introduced in MEII: Dead. Gave his life to insure the efficacy of his cure for the Genophage. Someone had to stay in the dispersion tower to make sure it got through, and he chose to. His death was pretty poignant.
Thane Krios: Dead, of wounds sustained while protecting Sheppard from Kai Leng, a Cerebus Assassin. The blood loss exacerbated his Kepral's syndrome. He died with his son and Sheppard at his side, saying a prayer for Sheppard.
Councilman Donnel Udina: Dead. Shot by Sheppard durring his Citadel coup attempt. Udina's was an interesting arc... from being an asshole, to earning our grudging respect, to a Tragic figure unable to save Humanity and frustrated by his impotency, to a betrayer, shot down on a shuttle pad.
Legion: 'Dead' (in so far as a synthetic can die). Disperesed his identity throughout the Geth consensus, in order to make the Geth truely Sentient.
Kal'Reegar of the Quarian Marines: Dead. Killed while defending a Turian Communication's Hub (we learned of via ship e-mail, the character had no other part in the game). Kal as a lots of folks favorite recurring character, being voiced by Adam Baldwin of Firefly fame.
Admiral David Anderson: Dead. Died of wounds sustained when Commander Sheppard (under the control of the Illusive Man) shot him in the stomach. Aside from Sheppard, and maybe T'Soni, Anderson was the most 'essential' character to me in the ME Universe, being one of the few threads of continuity between game and book. He first saw action in the first contact war, when human's were first exploring the Galaxy. He was there when Saren (antagonist of MEI) took the first steps that would make him a tool of the Reapers. And he was there at the end, closing his eyes minutes before Sheppard's final choice.
The Illusive Man: Dead. Shot by Sheppard. Damn straight.
And, finally...
Commander Mila Sheppard: Dead. Consumd by the crucible, the ancient tool they expected to use to defeat the Reapers (which also destroyed the Citadel, and every Mass Effect Relay. Given several choices, she sacrificed herself to bring about an end to the Galactic extinction cycle, by creating a synthesis between Synthetic and Organic life.
On happier notes, Characters that came back from ME3, and lived (some are known to have survived, some we presume survived because we did not see their death... but who knows... they last moments are, as I aid, apocalyptic)
Liara T'Soni, escaped on Normandy, and crash landed on a lush planet.
Miranda Lawson: Presumed Survived, having finally killed her father, and saved her sister.
Kaidan Alenko: Presumed Survived.
Garrus Vakarian: Presumed Survived.
Urdnot Wrex: Presumed Survived (and is having kids!)
Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy: Presumed Survived
Jacob Taylor: Presumed Survived (and is starting a familiy)
Grunt: Presumed Survived, though they had a long cut scene that I felt sure was going to be a heroic death.
Samara Presumed Survived, saving one of her Ardnat Yakshi daughters, the other dying to destroy the reapers harvesting the Ardnat Yakshi in their monestary (the third, Morenth, having been killed in ME II)
Zaeed Massani: Presumed Survived
Kasumi Goto: Presumed Survived
Jeff "Joker" Moreau Survived: and in a romantic relationship with EDI, formerly the Normandy SSR2's AI, but who now has a sexy synthetic body.
EDI: As above, survived, with Jeff and Liara T'Soni, the crash landing of the Normandy after the explosion of the Citadel, the Crucible, and the Galactic Relay Network.
Jack: Presumed Survived, and taking care of her class of Biotic Students.
Admiral Steve Hackettt: Presumed Survived
Aria T'Loak: Presumed Survived
Feron : Little contact in game other than e-maisl, Presumed Survived.
James Vega: Introduced in ME3, Presumed Survived.
Javik, the last Prothean: Introduced in ME3, Presumed Survived.
Doctor Karin Chakwas: Presumed Survived.
Conrad Verner: Makes an appearence in ME3, and tries to take a bullet for Sheppard! Presumed Survived.
Captain Kirrahe: The Solarian leader of the special tasks group in MEI, makes a 1 mission appearance in ME3. Presumed Survived.
Kelly Chambers: Sweet sweet Kelly. Makes an appearence, but does not play a significant role in ME3. Can't rejoin Sheppard because of continuing emotion issues caused by trauma Collector capture. Presumed Survived.
Armando Bailey: Hard nosed cop of the Citadel. Promoted to major, and head of C-Sec. Presumed Survived.