Favorite moments in ME3 (Spoilers possible)

[FPAlpha]

So i've finished the game this morning and thought a bit about it.. this thread is not about the endings which are hugely controversial (and there's a thread here already) and i didn't want to clog up the main thread with endless spoiler codes.

So what were your favorite moments in the game? Having finished the game i discovered that i missed quite a ton due to my actions and choices.. for example a buddy of mine met Jack from ME2 and i didn't but i met Jacob and he didn't so i wanted to hear what you all experienced and liked.

Here are mine:

- target shooting with Garrus on Citadel

Garrus is one of my favorite characters in the entire game.. i think the Turians look badass visually and i like their society.. sort of the ME3 equivalent to Klingons so i jumped at the chance to have some private time with my friend. We went up a "secret" spot on Citadel and just started talking crap and bust out some guns to shoot at targets to determine who's the best shot.. just to friends hanging out together

- the Cerberus scientists extraction

A side mission where i met Jacob about to flee with ex-Cerberus scientists from a secret base while under attack. You hold off Cerberus long enough for the civilians to escape and i actually laughed out loud when the message "First shuttle away" came through the come and everyone cheered.. yeah, i love Star Wars too and thanks for the nod

- Mordin sacrifies himself on Tuchanka

I always loved this little dude.. his speech pattern and demeanour and this is why i really got choked up on the Tuchanka mission. The whole epicness of it was amazing and of the best moments in the entire game.. i can understand the reason of the Genophage but i can also sympathize with the Krogan who didn't chose this life and then get betrayed by the very same people they fought for. To have a member of the same species that put them into effective slavery sacrifice his life to do the right thing was just heartwarming and wrenching at the same time.. Mordin's insistence that he has to do it himself if it should be done right was just so special and he went out with a bang and as a real hero.

- Shepard's last walk on Earth

Just before the final assault you get to walk through the makeshift base encountering many of your squadmates and have a personal moment with each of them.. this was it, the finale and it was unlikely that everyone would make it out alive (and during i instantly knew Shepard was going to die) and it was just nice to get some closure with all of them.

These are what immediately come to mind.. let's hear about yours.

 

[Evil Twin]

Just before the final assault you get to walk through the makeshift base encountering many of your squadmates and have a personal moment with each of them.. this was it, the finale and it was unlikely that everyone would make it out alive (and during i instantly knew Shepard was going to die) and it was just nice to get some closure with all of them.

Nope, I felt pretty darn certain that Shep would live. Why? Because just about everything comes up roses for Paragon Shep in ME3! Aw, Grunt gets killed by Rachni? Ha-ha, just kidding, he's fine! Balak from the ME1 DLC returns to kill you after you let him go? It's all good, you can recruit him as a war asset! About the only time I felt it didn't was when you tell Kelly to keep helping the refugees and she ends up getting murdered by Cerberus when they invade the Citadel. Not sure if she survives if you tell her to change her identity. As for the other deaths, I was totally fine with them. Thane was dying anyway, so at least he got to go out a hero. Likewise, Mordin was old didn't have too many years left and curing the genophage was a fitting end, as was Legion sacrificing himself to help reunite the Quarians and the Geth.

As for my favorite moments, yeah shooting with Garrus on the Citadel was great, even though personally the character's never really done much for me. I didn't care for his reckless attitude in 1, and aside from their appearance, there just isn't really anything particularly "alien" about Turians that set them apart from humans. (I loved all the "calibration" jokes in ME3 though)

I also looked forward to hitting the bridge after each mission and listening to Joker and EDI's hilarious comments. Loved the one part where one of EDI's comments make Shepard give this momentary look. I wanted to smack Shepard for being all gloomy towards them following Thessia. Dammit Shepard, I don't care if YOU'RE not in the mood for some laughs, *I* am!

 

[eastman23]

My favourite moments so far (my next priority mission is making contact with the Quarians):

1. The entire mission on Menae (Palaven's moon) simply for the visual impact alone. Seeing Palaven burning up there in the sky and having Reapers moving around on the moon nearby was simply amazing.

2. Being able to shoot Udina. The bastard deserved it.

3. Having Grunt hold off the rachni while my squad escaped to the shuttle after saving the rachni queen (again!). I honestly thought he wasn't going to make it, but then he emerges from the mine shaft covered in blood. Even though he's not part of my squad, it was still nice to see him survive!

4. On the other hand, seeing Mordin sacrifice himself to spread the genophage cure was an extremely powerful moment. Especially when he knew it was going to happen. It was gut-wrenching.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

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!

 

[clint g]

4. On the other hand, seeing Mordin sacrifice himself to spread the genophage cure was an extremely powerful moment. Especially when he knew it was going to happen. It was gut-wrenching.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, my favorite moment was when my Shep murdered Mordin in cold blood to prevent him from curing the genophage

 

[-Brett-]

4. On the other hand, seeing Mordin sacrifice himself to spread the genophage cure was an extremely powerful moment. Especially when he knew it was going to happen. It was gut-wrenching.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, my favorite moment was when my Shep murdered Mordin in cold blood to prevent him from curing the genophage

That was what I did, too. Seems odd to call it a "favorite moment" since I liked Mordin, but it was definitely one of the most memorable in the game. Shepard's remorse is palpable. Or maybe I'm just projecting my own remorse. Either way, it's a rare thing to feel bad about a video game character.

 

[clint g]

4. On the other hand, seeing Mordin sacrifice himself to spread the genophage cure was an extremely powerful moment. Especially when he knew it was going to happen. It was gut-wrenching.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, my favorite moment was when my Shep murdered Mordin in cold blood to prevent him from curing the genophage

That was what I did, too. Seems odd to call it a "favorite moment" since I liked Mordin, but it was definitely one of the most memorable in the game. Shepard's remorse is palpable. Or maybe I'm just projecting my own remorse. Either way, it's a rare thing to feel bad about a video game character.

Yup, an its only made worse with everyone calling you a hero yet you alone know the truth about what happened.

 

[Reverend]

The best parts of this game were easily the quieter character moments. Having a shooting competition with Garrus (I didn't let him win), torturing a severely hung over Ashley, having two completely random sidequests from ME1 converge into one hilariously hammy scene (Conrad & Jenna) walking in on Garrus and Tali, drinking too much at purgatory and waking up next to Aria...

Hmm, let's see what else. Oh, how about the entire Grissom Academy mission? Kahlee Sanders, Jack AND David Archer? I was grinning like an idiot the whole way through!

- Thane and Kai Leng's fight. Ninja assassin vs. ninja assassin?! Hell yes! The racist bag of shite got fought to a standstill by a half dead Drell. Very satisfying.

- Every damn scene with Wrex in it!

- Mordin's rendition of "Queen of Tuchanka" and, of course his swan song.

- Finding out Liara has a part Hanar half sister (was there anyone that didn't guess who Aetheta really was? Shame we didn't get an Aria/Wrex scene too.)

- Chakwas's crack about Shepard's first name.

- The Shepard VI!!!

 

[stonester1]

Thane putting the smackdown on the Cerebus assassin (I HATE that guy). Grunt after you thought he was dead emerging from the carnage, gore covered and wanting a sandwich. Almost any of Garrus lines (and I didnt get any of them my first playthrough, and my Shepard I used from ME1 lost Garrus, as well as Jack and Mordin in the suicide mission. My other Sheppard who I only played through ME2 lost Miranda).

I also lost the lady engineer of that bickering pair, and the male engineer is much quieter and more subdued without her. I also lost Kelly Chambers, and her absence is also noticed.

Oh, Joker, lots with him, and EDI with several characters, especially Joker.

Mordin, his passing moved me, as did Mirandas.

 

[Reverend]

Just encountered a funny bit with Joker on my second playthrough. After the rachi mission, if you choose to leave the reaper mutant queen down there (not the one from Noveria which this Shep already killed) joker says something like "you want to nuke the site from orbit? It's the only way to be su- ah nevermind, it's probably fine."

 

[TheGodBen]

On the opposite end of the spectrum, my favorite moment was when my Shep murdered Mordin in cold blood to prevent him from curing the genophage

That was what I did, too. Seems odd to call it a "favorite moment" since I liked Mordin, but it was definitely one of the most memorable in the game. Shepard's remorse is palpable. Or maybe I'm just projecting my own remorse. Either way, it's a rare thing to feel bad about a video game character.

Yup, an its only made worse with everyone calling you a hero yet you alone know the truth about what happened.

Yeah, that whole sequence was painful. Shooting Mordin was bad enough, then I was forced to watch him crawl across the ground trying to be a hero, which almost made me want to throw up. Then I went through conversation after conversation where everyone called me a hero and it made me feel like shit because all I really did was shoot a friend in the back. Finally, after I put it all behind me and got on with the game, Wrex showed up knowing the truth and I was forced to kill him too. Powerful moments to be sure, but I can't classify them as favourites.

My favourite moment is related to that string of events though. After the Thessia mission, when everyone is feeling down, I spoke to Garrus and he managed to put Wrex's death and the Salarian assistance together and figured out what I did on Tuchanka. I could either confirm his suspicions or lie about it, and I hesitated for moment before deciding that Garrus was the one guy I could trust so I told him the truth. It was a wonderful, understated scene of confession between two good friends, and it felt good that my Shepard finally got that off his chest.

 

[FPAlpha]

See.. this is why i believe Mass Effect is one of the best games out there, no matter what you think about the ending.

I had the "standard" experience with Mordin and Tuchanka but that was a hard decision too and the game doesn't make it easy for you to choose. However reading this gives so much life to a mere game and i honestly believe that in a movie, if played by a good actor and otherwise written well, it could be an Oscar worthy scene.

I just love how utterly different actions turn out by the choice of the players and i like to hear what other people's experiences are.. that story and the end with the confession to Garrus is just brilliant storywriting and pre-anticipation by the game designers.

 

[Deks]

Seeing Legion giving up his own life for other Geth (so they could have fully developed AI) who invited the Quarians back to their home-planet and worked together.

Mordin giving up his life to distribute the genophage cure.
Grunt going into that battle to cover Shepard and give the queen enough time to escape (though seeing him out again was good).

The Prothean AI on Thessia.

Male Shepard (finally) getting Kaidan (or Cortez) as a love interest.

 

[PsychoPere]

A small moment that I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Shepard and Garrus joking about "the next Shadow Broker" while on Sur'Kesh, if your squad also includes Liara.

"Careful. There goes the next Shadow Broker."
"Could've sworn he was muttering 'T'Soni' the whole time."
"Not funny!"

 

[clint g]

A small moment that I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Shepard and Garrus joking about "the next Shadow Broker" while on Sur'Kesh, if your squad also includes Liara.

"Careful. There goes the next Shadow Broker."
"Could've sworn he was muttering 'T'Soni' the whole time."
"Not funny!"

Another fun small moment along those lines is, if you DIDN"T play the shadow broker, Edi says "And with Liara's new role as the Shadow Broker she can certainly help us out"

Shep says "....what"

To which Edi says "....oopss" lol

Yeah, the small moments are certainly some of the best. I look forward to a play through where half my crew isn't wiped out

 

[PsychoPere]

I remember having that moment on my current FemShep playthrough (she was created in ME2, but for whatever reason I never completed LotSB or Arrival with that character) - but it came after Liara had already told me that she was now the Broker, and so I found it amusing on two levels.

The first was the connection to EDI having earlier mentioned that Liara told her she was the asari equivalent of a "blabbermouth," and the second, of course, was the mistaken timing of the dialogue.

 

[Deks]

I want to replay from the first game myself.
And in ME2, I'll definitely try to save every member of the crew (well, the main characters survived in every gameplay, the rest of the crew though did not apart from Chakwas and maybe 2 or 3 more people because I think I waited too long - have to do the IFF mission almost last because the kidnapping/ambush scene kicks in about 2 quests afterwards - and once it kicks in, you either have time to do at least 1 or 2 quests after that if you want to save the Normandy's crew before they are turned into paste)

 

[TheGodBen]

I just love how utterly different actions turn out by the choice of the players and i like to hear what other people's experiences are.. that story and the end with the confession to Garrus is just brilliant storywriting and pre-anticipation by the game designers.

Here's the scene I was talking about:

[yt]v=vc3SRlBsLqc[/yt]

On the surface, there's nothing that special about it, it's fairly standard. But when I was playing it I unexpectedly found myself in a situation where I was questioning how deep the friendship between Shepard and Garrus goes, I had to judge how he would react to telling him the truth. I had faith in that friendship and that faith was, thankfully, rewarded. At the end of the game, when Shepard said that "there's no Shepard without Vakarian", it was from the heart. That's why I chose for Garrus to be in my squad during the final mission, if we go down then we're going down together.

Which is why it's extra weird that he left me behind and ended up on a jungle planet with Joker.

 

[MNM]

I think my favourite part was the whole thing with the Geth and the Quarians.

After going into the Geth conciousness and seeing what happened to the early Geth there, I was all set to side with Legion and the Geth agains the Quarians when the time came.

But when it did, Tali made her personal plea to not sell out her race, and I just couldnt do it, I really couldnt. So I stopped Legion, and watching my Shepred kill Legion to stop him uploading the Reaper code was actually hard. Even if I did hit all the renegade interupts to repeatedly shoot him. And when he finally asks if he has a soul, I genuinely thought Tali was going to say no, but she said yes, that surprised me. It was all great though.

Another cool thing was after the Sanctuary mission and having helped Miranda, finidng Tali drunk in the bar and her talk of the induction straw, loved it.

I also loved it when on Earth, I got the chance to talk to some people over the holophone or whatever it was, I just chose Miranda and really loved the interaction between them both, it showed a great friendship (The whole Miranda thing is clearly awaiting a DLC to flesh it out btw).

 

[FPAlpha]

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.