One of gaming’s greatest trilogies and one of the best science fiction universes ever crafted,Mass Effectmade waves with its emphasis on decision-based storytelling that affects the overall narrative. From the beginning of the original straight to the end of Mass Effect 3, decisions and personalities matter and inform how certain characters and plot points develop.
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The Paragon choices are often misconstrued as being the innocent, boring options, but they’re more about being morally upright and good in terrible situations (sometimes subvertingchallenging boss battles). The best Paragon choices are the ones that Shepard fights hard to bring to fruition, and that bring comfort in the darkest hours of the Normandy crew.
10Mass Effect 2: Save Sidonis
In Mass Effect 2, every squad mate has something weighing on their minds that Shepard should take care of to make sure they’re on their A-game for the fight against the Collectors. Garrus Vakarian is areturning squad matefrom the first Mass Effect and instant fan favorite. He tried to form his own team to deal vigilante justice on the Omega space station, but it ended in disaster when one of his men sold them out and got his team killed.
Tracking the guilt-ridden turncoat to the Citadel, Shepard can stand in front of Sidonis and talk Garrus down from killing Sidonis, who tells Shepard and Garrus that he was forced to betray the team. Interrupting Garrus' view enough times has him allow Sidonis to walk free. Garrus thanks Shepard for the intervention later.
9Mass Effect 2: Scared Straight
On their way to recruit the mysterious Archangel on the Omega station, Shepard and company will walk by a teenager who is signing up alongside other mercenaries and thugs to hunt down the same vigilante. Shepard will automatically call him out, and the kid will brag about spending 50 credits for his obviously cheap and broken pistol, saying he’s out to make a name for himself.
With a Paragon interrupt, Shepard will take the pistol out of the kid’s hand, break it and toss it back, telling him to get a refund. Afterward, Shepard will get an email from them, thanking them for saving him from the shootout the operation turned into.
8Mass Effect 2: Hug Tali
Tali has been accused of treason, and Shepard has to act as her defense attorney due to his role as ship captain. While Shepard’s actions during Tali’s trial can inform a later Paragon decision in Mass Effect 3, the trial will be put on hold as Tali and Shepard are sent to a quarantined Quarian ships that’s overrun by reactivated Geth.
Discovering that her father illegally reactivated the Geth technologies and got everyone, himself included, killed as a result, Tali breaks down at the sight of her father’s corpse. With a prompt, Shepard can pull Tali away from the horrible sight and gives her a long overdue hug, allowing her to gather her composure and properly mourn her loss.
7Mass Effect 2/3: Blue Rose of Illium
On Illium in Mass Effect 2, an Asari is being stalked by her Krogan ex-boyfriend. Depending on how Shepard talks to her, their relationship can be rekindled and prove to be a fruitful and loving romance. Had the galaxy not been on the verge of disaster, these two may have had their happy ending.
During a mission with other Krogan, Shepard can find the Krogan poet’s body, with a final poem for his wife and their unborn child. Returning the message to the widow on the Citadel, she leaves heartbroken and in tears. It was only a few months, but Shepard could give these two a loving relationship that was worth fighting for.
6Mass Effect: Save The Citadel Council
The Reaper Sovereign is attacking the Citadel, andthe iconic Shepardis left to make a decision. Either hold back the awaiting human Fleet to attack Sovereign at his weakest, or move in now to save the Council and the Destiny Ascension super carrier they’re hiding aboard. Rubbing the truth in the Council’s face and saving the hundreds of other personnel onboard is a tempting offer, and the Destiny Ascension is a powerful ally in the war against the Reapers in Mass Effect 3.
Saving the Council helps keep better characterization and continuity across the trilogy, and proving the Council wrong over and over again never ceases to entertain players, as these politicians are left gobsmacked by Shepard’s genius and wit. Saving the galaxy’s leadership and eventually humbling them when the galaxy is under threat is nothing short of harrowing.
5Mass Effect: Zhu’s Hope
The people of this desperate colony world have been unwittingly used as guinea pigs to test the mind controlling properties of an ancient plant growing beneath the city. When Shepard and his team return to the colony, the Thorian is now exuding full control over the colonists and forcing them to attack the player and their squad. If players met a stranded group of survivors earlier, Shepard can use non-lethal gas grenades in addition to a melee strike to defeat the colonists without killing them.
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While certain player builds and squad mate pairings can make this fight easier or harder, the end result is a saved colony that’s more dedicated than ever to making the planet Feros their home. In Mass Effect 3, the entire colony becomes an organized war asset.
4Mass Effect 2: Overlord DLC - Save David Archer
Seeing the potential to control and weaponize the Geth for their own ends, David’s brother and Cerberus strapped David into a massive supercomputer, merging his mind with the Geth collective to try and reprogram the alien machines to bend to humanity’s will.
Realizing the rogue AI causing all these problems is an innocent man crying for help, Shepard can beat David’s brother senseless and take David away to a special academy for treatment. This academy is seen again in Mass Effect 3, and David helps his fellow students evacuate. He thanks Shepard for giving him a longer and safer life than Cerberus would have.
3Mass Effect/Mass Effect 3: The Rachni Queen
The Rachni nearly overran the galaxy, and it took the Krogan being uplifted into a space-faring race and outfitted with the best weapons in the galaxy to seemingly kill them. A Queen egg survived, and it overruns the research facility holding her in the first Mass Effect. Given the choice to truly doom the species or let her go free, players can build an overarching story of redemption for this violent race.
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Returning in Mass Effect 3, her children having been indoctrinated by the Reapers to be used as weapons against the galaxy. Choosing to free her again will see the Queen ally with the combined forces of the galaxy, unleashing her new children against the Reaper threat.
2Mass Effect 3: Cure the Genophage
An overarching plot point throughout the trilogy is the Krogan Genophage, a genetic disease that brought ruin to Krogan culture. By Mass Effect 3, depending on a number of the player’s choices, a proper cure for the Genophage is close to finalization, just in time for the Reaper invasion.
The player will be tempted several times to go against the planned release of the cure, with multiple points where it can be sabotaged, with alternate rewards on the table for doing so. Having suffered and fought alongside Grunt and Wrex throughout the trilogy, securing the Krogan army for the fight against the Reapers is worth any long term issues, and the final shot of the cure’s dispersal is a fine sendoff for series favorite Mordin Solus.
1Mass Effect 3: End The Geth/Quarian War
The Quarians multi-century exile from their homeworld, reducing them to a fleet-bound species as a result of their artificial creations rising up, boils over in Mass Effect 3. Depending on the player’s actions during Tali’s trial in Mass Effect 2, and their actions during this military campaign, a number of outcomes are possible that can determine the fate of these two warring cultures.
In the ideal outcome, an intelligent Paragon Shepard can intervene and broker a ceasefire between the Geth and the Quarians, allowing Legion to upload individual personalities across the Geth collective and a lasting peace between the two to be brokered.
