Favorite moments in ME3 (Spoilers possible)

[Herkimer Jitty]

The Blasto poster on the Citadel. I sat there and listened to every single clip, laughing my ass off all the while. Oh man, that was a hoot. They parody practically every single action movie cliche there is, and it is glorious!

But mostly Lethal Weapon 2.

And I totally want to watch it.

- The Shepard VI!!!

Anyone ever tell you you're one hell of a looker, soldier?

 

[Reverend]

The Geth/Quarian mission was also a very tough and emotional nut.. my intention was to make each other see that they both made terrible mistakes and that they need peace between them if they, and everybody else, want to make it through the war.

I started out supporting Legion in uploading the Reaper code while Tali pleaded not to sell out her race but somehow i apparently missed the "right" choice of words and Legion became ever more agressive until i finally had only two choices- Geth or Quarian. I sat there for a full minute or two stunned as to what i should do and finally chose the Quarians.. biology over technology.

I've rarely had to make such decisions in any game i've played.. most of the time it's pretty obvious what choices to make and what will happen next and they're easy. With Mass Effect you are so involved in the events and characters that you think about what you're doing as if it were real and you are actually deciding the fates of entire races on a galactic scale. I think this is why ME is so damn successful.. it's not the graphics or the action but the story and the choices each player can make and each story will be slightly different for everybody.. heck, the story will be different in each playthrough and that's just brilliant.

I don't know what combination of decisions allowed me to do it, but I managed to help the Geth evolve AND spare the Quarians. Felt like it came bloody close though! The warmonger Admiral kept ordering the fleet to fire. I think what tipped the balance was saving that other Admiral just prior. For a second there I thought I'd have to do something drastic...and if it came to it, I think I'd have sided with the quarians too. Tali is my favourite squad mate and I couldn't do that to her.

It's weird, I don't actually think of my main Shepard as a paragon, though looking back most of her big decisions were paragon ones. Perhaps it's because I play from the gut and her general dialogue responses tend to be more renegade. I think her final reputation balance was split about 80/20.

 

[Seven of Five]

I ended up with Geth/Quarian peace too. It's been a compelling storyline since ME1, and I was happy to see the Quarian fleet listen to me when I told them to back off. Legion taking one for the Geth was very sad though, if justified.

There were plenty of moments like that throughout the game. Mordin killing himself to ensure the genophage cure is dispensed, almost brought me to tears. Thane taking on the annoying assassin and dying a hero. Thessia falling. Miranda killing her father and then dying herself. "That was for Thane, you son of a bitch!" Best renegade action ever!

I absolutely loved Garrus and Shepard shooting targets on the Citadel! I missed my shot for him to make him feel better! The Garrus/Shepard friendship was perfect in this game. Their last talk together before the final push for Earth was very disturbing for me, as they were both trying to hard to keep their chins up. It was so obvious how terrified they were.

The whole of that scene was stomach churning. Shepard being able to speak to all of the squad that wasn't with him via the communications officer, was very emotional. Especially after going through a lot of previous emotional missions to get there. And then he speaks to the rest of the squad before we all leave. Lots of closure was there, but I knew this mission was a one-way thing.

I romanced Tali and I thought that it was handled very well. I loved the photo she gave Shepard - finally we see what she looks like under the mask! It was perfect. She was an absolute rock for Shepard during the hard times.

I'm just not sure why she was with Joker in the last Normandy scene! Perhaps it was all a ruse for Joker and Tali to be together and to get me out of the way?

 

[Reverend]

^Wait, Miranda can die in that scene? I forget exactly how it all went down but I think I convinced her father to let Oriana go, the Miranda threw him out the window. Incidentally, am I crazy or was Lawson senior played by Jim from Neighbours? By the time the credits rolled around I was in no mood to sit through them and check.

I did come close to loosing Samara though. Crazy woman and her code tried to kill herself. For a second I though I'd have to knock her out or something.

I'll have to wait a while before I see the Tali romance play out as by first playthrough was with my main femshep and she stayed loyal to Liara through all three games.

I was annoyed though that I didn't get to see her face on rannoch though. I realise some gamers didn't want to see what she looked like but there was a simple way to handle it. All they had to do was have Shepard walk up to her when she took her mask off and have that "press 'V' to view" icon pop up. If you press it, then you get Shepard's POV and see her face, if yuo leave it alone, the camera stays where it is. Easy.

 

[DarkHorizon]

What absolutely got me:

"Kolyat... Why does the prayer say 'she'?"

 

[PsychoPere]

^Wait, Miranda can die in that scene?

I assume Miranda can die if her loyalty mission was not completed (or her loyalty was not maintained in the argument with Jack). That would be similar to Zaeed; if he was loyal by the end of ME2, he survives the incident with the volus ambassador and becomes a War Asset, but he dies if he was not loyal.

 

[sonn]

If you don't tell Miranda about Kai Leng she ends up dying.

 

[Seven of Five]

Yeah I thought it was odd that she died as I did her loyalty mission in ME2. But now that I think about it, I backed Jack in the big argument they were having. Miranda lost all interest in me after that and I ended up with Jack for a bit, before switching to Tali in the restart mission. And this was after I was with Liara in ME1! My Shep is such a ho!

 

[stonester1]

Drunk Tali..."Emergency...induction...port"

Legion commenting on EDI's design aesthetics "top heavy".

Oh, Thane kicking ass on Kai Ling and saving the ambassador (lost her the first time, having no Thane). And his death scene was very moving.

 

[stonester1]

^Wait, Miranda can die in that scene?

I assume Miranda can die if her loyalty mission was not completed (or her loyalty was not maintained in the argument with Jack). That would be similar to Zaeed; if he was loyal by the end of ME2, he survives the incident with the volus ambassador and becomes a War Asset, but he dies if he was not loyal.

Yeah, Miranda was the only one I lost in my first run at the suicide mission. The second was a massacre.

 

[PsychoPere]

Er, what? I was referring to Miranda dying in ME3 based (possibly) on events in ME2, not dying in the ME2 suicide mission...

 

[stonester1]

Hm. Well, in one of my playthroughs, she did live to ME3 and I had a romance with her. When I met her at the Citadel and she asked if we were still on, I said yes. She died later, but apparently she doesn't have to.

 

[PsychoPere]

I started out supporting Legion in uploading the Reaper code while Tali pleaded not to sell out her race but somehow i apparently missed the "right" choice of words and Legion became ever more agressive until i finally had only two choices- Geth or Quarian. I sat there for a full minute or two stunned as to what i should do and finally chose the Quarians.. biology over technology.

I just did Priority: Rannoch on my current FemShep import, and I didn't have the options this time that would have allowed the quarians and the geth to both survive.

In looking at the ME Wiki entry for the mission, the general consensus right now seems to be that having those Charm/Threaten options is a combination of the following:

• a certain Reputation level (at least 4 bars is the current thinking)
• Tali and Legion both alive and present (of course)
• imported Shep from ME2
• destroyed the heretic geth in ME2
• prevented Tali's exile in ME2 (otherwise she won't be an Admiral)
• kept loyalty of both Tali and Legion in ME2
• saved Admiral Zaal'Kooris
• completed Rannoch: Geth Fighter Squadron

Of those, my FemShep had accomplished everything, except she rewrote the geth heretics in ME2 (I don't believe she had the requisite Reputation level either). And because she rewrote the geth heretics, the quarian fleets took even more damage than they would have in the fight for Rannoch - so I'm proceeding on this character with a save wherein the quarians are now extinct (810 War Asset total for the geth compared to 525 for the quarians). But, damn, was it hard to watch the destruction of the quarian fleet, and Tali committing suicide...

 

[TheGodBen]

Hm. Well, in one of my playthroughs, she did live to ME3 and I had a romance with her. When I met her at the Citadel and she asked if we were still on, I said yes. She died later, but apparently she doesn't have to.

She didn't die for me, I got to use a charm that convinced her dad to stand down. I even got to sleep with her, which I was pleasantly surprised by. Considering how poorly former romances were treated in ME2 (not counting LotSB) I wasn't expecting to be able to follow up on that relationship, but Bioware managed to do good this time.

• destroyed the heretic geth in ME2

That explains why I couldn't save both in that mission then, I rewrote them in ME2. And the Geth provide 800 war asset points? No wonder you guys had much higher scores than me, all I managed was 3000 because I sided with the stupid Quarians.

 

[eastman23]

/\ I rewrote the geth heretics in ME2 and was able to recruit both them and the quarians.

 

[TheGodBen]

Then I honestly don't know what I did wrong. I did everything on that list except destroying the heretics and I still didn't even get the greyed out charm/intimidate options. I didn't even know it was possible to save both until I read about it online later.

 

[PsychoPere]

My 810 number for the geth was based on rewriting the heretics in ME2. You gain 150 assets for the Geth Fleet entry if that was done; you lose 150 assets if the heretics were destroyed.

The 525 quarian number was also based on the heretics having been rewritten, and represented a loss of 50 each for the Civilian Fleet, the Heavy Fleet, and the Patrol Fleet. If the heretics were destroyed, you would instead gain 50.

For comparison to my first import: geth at 510, quarians at 790 (and this was with a loss of some points to the Heavy Fleet due to "several dozen frigates" not having time to be repaired). Quarians and geth both on my side thus netted me 1300. My EMS at the time of the final assault on that Shepard was 3320.


This FemShep I'm currently on has to be a very depressed person at the moment. She killed Mordin because she didn't trust Wreav wouldn't seek revenge for the genophage after the Reaper War was over, and now she's witnessed the genocide of the quarian species due to her own decisions... and watched Tali throw herself off a cliff.

 

[FPAlpha]

Jesus.. that sounds like one depressing life.. wouldn't surprise me if she survived the end only to reach for her gun, fade to black as we hear the last shot fired in this war

 

[Seven of Five]

ME3 was a pretty depressing game at times, but I used a save where all my squadmates lived. I can't for the life of me work out what happened to the one where I lost Thane, Mordin and Legion. I would love to have seen how that unfolded in the game, although I think I would have lost three of my favouritest moments in the game with them gone!

 

[PsychoPere]

Jesus.. that sounds like one depressing life.. wouldn't surprise me if she survived the end only to reach for her gun, fade to black as we hear the last shot fired in this war

Heh, it'd be even worse if she had lost people in the ME2 suicide mission! (As it is, she also lost Ashley and Wrex, though this character is an ME2-only import).

I can't for the life of me work out what happened to the one where I lost Thane, Mordin and Legion. I would love to have seen how that unfolded in the game, although I think I would have lost three of my favouritest moments in the game with them gone!

Captain Kirrahe would replace Thane in the Citadel coup mission, and would be killed by Kai Leng while saving the salarian councilor.

Mordin would be replaced by Padok Wiks, the STG scientist in charge of the base on Sur'Kesh where the krogan females were kept.

Legion would be replaced by a "Geth VI."