![]() ![]() Whichever genocide you choose, you are now a war criminal in all but name. Both choices discredit the idea that different races can coexist peacefully. You either let a servant race butcher their former masters, or the masters butcher their former slaves. You either genocide the entire Quarian or Geth race. In it, the fight between the Quarians and Geth comes to a head. The second act of vanilla Mass Effect 3 is just as obsessed with apocalyptic race wars. ![]() These two remind you of any real life conflicts? BioWare Seems grim? Buckle up! The game is just starting. Either choice discredits the viability of multiracial society. The player must either defend the current multicultural order through genocide, or doom it to fall before a racialized horde. They cannot avoid making a choice that either guarantees the genocide of one race or slavery of all others. In short, with the genophage cured, Wreav dreams of founding an empire based on Krogan supremacy. Despite all this, if you’re still willing to cure the genophage, Wreav emails you - yes, emails you - promising eventual war against the Human race. Wreav himself makes lots of racist jokes and believes in “Krogan superiority,” just in case you doubted if you’re supposed to hate this guy. Liara warns you he’s commissioned more WMD’s than any other Warlord in Krogan history. Wreav desires a new Krogan Empire and reckoning for the genophage against other races. ![]() With Wreav in charge of the Krogan, the situation is bleak. Without it, they could enslave the galaxy. The Krogans nearly subjugated the galaxy once upon a time only the genophage stopped them. Many who oppose the cure worry history will repeat itself. Why? Well, the Krogan will only help Shepard if the genocide of their race is ended by curing the genophage. In the first act of vanilla Mass Effect 3, you need to decide whether to support the ongoing genocide of one race, or guarantee the slavery of all others. So, why should you play Mass Effect 3 without it? Vanilla Mass Effect 3 tells a more coherent story from beginning to end: this version of the game consistently shows that racial conflict is inevitable. It’s no exaggeration to say Bioware designed the series around this feature. This might seem odd, because importing choices from game to game is what this trilogy is rightly famous for. Mass Effect 3’s political message is best savored "vanilla," that is, without importing choices from Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect 3 works better as social darwinist propaganda than it does as an RPG. I know that may sound nuts, or just inflammatory, but I’ve got the receipts. Mass Effect 3’s social darwinist message is that multiracial societies with multicultural policies are doomed to fail: they must end in genocide, slavery, or eugenic assimilation. But Mass Effect 3 is more like a cautionary tale or work of dystopian propaganda it’s a story designed to convey a specific political message, like 1984, or Brave New World. My mistake was expecting an RPG like Mass Effect 1 or Mass Effect 2, one where I have some agency in shaping the meaning of the story. Was I missing Mass Effect 3’s point? Definitely. I had no desire to replay it, which shocked me given my many completionist runs of Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2. In 2012, the game left me feeling empty and depressed. ![]() I’ve never been fond of Mass Effect 3 and I’ve always struggled to articulate why. ![]()
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