T w e n t y S i d e d

Now we finally get the payoff for the end of Mass Effect 2. Did you destroy the collector base? Did you keep it? Did you agonize over the decision? Now you can find out what happened!

It really is absurd. This is the big moral choice at the end of Mass Effect 2. We’d already predicted that it wouldn’t have any impact on the story. (Cerberus would get the technology it was supposed to get no matter what.) But I still held out hope that it would have a cosmetic payoff. But no, that choice is clearly and deliberately negated for no reason. The Reaper Baby isn’t used as an explanation for anything specific, so it’s not supporting other plot points. (It’s being used as a “power source”. Great. That explains where Cerberus is getting their electricity, which is already free in this universe and the one thing they have that we aren’t questioning.) You could simply have this room appear empty if you wanted. There. No dialog. No additional art assets required. It’s a situation that will happen to one player and not another.

But instead BioWare went out of their way to have the Reaper Baby appear here, even though that makes no sense. They even spent money on slightly different dialog. Then the dialog specifically calls out how it makes no sense for this thing to be here. A lot of people cited parts of the game as feeling like the writers were showing open contempt for the audience. I have to say, I’m kind of feeling it in this scene.

And what’s with the line James has here? “All those assholes who doubted you… I wish they were here right now.” Why James? So they could tell us how right they were? Remember? In Mass Effect 2 everyone said working for TIM was stupid and pointless, even the player, and now we have proof that they were right. All of them.

Also Kai Leng died.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.