Mass Effect: Paragon or Renegade ?

So I LOVE playing Mass Effect. All three games (can't wait for the 4th one to come out much later this year). Have all the DLCs for each.

Every time I play, I find something new, or something goes down a different way that makes me go: Whaaaaa- ??? It trips me up.



It's part of the spice for me though too, knowing that even though I might have played it many times, I might find something new, or different.

My younger son plays it......we even got him the N7 Hoodie from the 3rd game (and now with the cold temps having finally arrived, I'm wishing I'd gotten one. It's really warm!).



For Christmas, I got all 3 games for my wife. She just finished the first one and had started in on the 2nd one. She's so in to it, I had to beg her to save and exit last night so I could sleep (her computer is in our bed room).

Now.....I've played male Shepard, and Fem Shepard. But here is the thing: I always end up going the Paragon route.

No mater how hard I try, I just can't seem to do Renegade.



Oh sure, there are plenty of things I do and get Renegade points for. But I just can't seem to go pure Renegade.

I've even tried making a Shepard look like someone that I know is not a nice guy.......but it just doesn't work.

My Shep is king of the Boy Scouts it seems. My wife says it's because I'm just too nice of a guy (yeah, yeah.....let's keep the "Moderator" jokes down, shall we?).



So what about the rest of you out there that play ME? How do you play, and have any of you found it hard to play one way or another?

The first time I ever played, I was purely paragon. I wanted to be nice, to be helpful, to make friends in the Mass Effect universe!

The second time... I thought to myself, okay, I've made a paragon character, now it's time to see how a renegade fares. First game, no problem. Second game, no problem. Third game? By the time I was at the Krogan's home planet, I was in tears. I'm a terrible sook, haha. And then later on the Citadel when Wrex found out what I had done, more tears. And oh my gosh, the Quarian's and poor Tali's reaction after I chose the Geth over her people.

The third game is absolutely terrible to play as a Renegade if you have a heart.

So now, I tend to play as a Paragade! A good guy with style Mostly paragon, but with the occasional renegade choice.

Mass Effect, by far, has my favorite storyline out of any video game, movie, or book, that I've seen and/or read.

The Reapers are the most badass things I've ever seen and heard, and damn, are they mysterious.

I haven't played the series in some time, but I'm with you - I could never really bring myself to being a "bad guy," Renegade type.

I'm playing Fallout currently and doing a "bad guy," run through as there is no karma type system, and I have to say - it is so much better than being a good guy.

"Go travel here, to kill some high-level guys, and I'll give you nothing worthwhile."

When I usually do most side/radiant quests, I have to say a lethal dose of get wrecked mate in the form of a mini-nuke is much, much more fun.

I am with you. I can't play pure Renegade. I do quite a few of the Renegade options where they make sense to me. I even sacrifice the Council in the first game about 50% of the time, but a lot of the Renegade options just seem childish to me. It's like they put them in more for people who think being petty is being bad@ss. I even play to kill off Jack occasionally because I don't really like her.

I've never been able to be a pure Renegade.

Did someone say "Reapers"????



Yah, I can't play Fallout 4 until I upgrade my vid card. It only has 1 gb of RAM on it. Rest of my computer is ready, but not the vid card.

Choosing between the Geth and Quarians: You should see what happens if you choose the Geth and Tali isn't there (all though I saw that too).

I always plan it so I'm able to talk the Quarian fleet down, so everyone is happy.

Renegade actions for me are easy if it feels righteous. For example:

ME2 - in the towers on Illiam, shoving the merc out the window. Considering how he and his fellows just murdered a bunch of workers, I had no hesitation there.

ME3 - the Batarian that was going around killing humans for revenge. You can let him go and get their fleets, but more times than not I don't do that.

ME3 - the Dalitrass on the Normandy....I always enjoy telling the Dalitrass off.

Now in ME2, there is a renegade move you do but it's to help you help Archangel, and that's taking the mechanic out (Shepard - "You're working too hard.").

But yah.....for me when I was trying to do renegade, when I got to 3, I was like "NO! NO! It can't go that way!", and I crumble, load up a paragon save and get the feel goods going.

a reply to: eriktheawful

I like punching the Quarian and throwing him off my ship.

I have played all games twice.

First time i played as i wanted to made decisions that i wanted to at the time and let things take their natural course. I find this way to be more natural, makes the events in the game feel more unique to me, so I might chose a renegade move if I believe it will benefit my character or feels more like the "right" thing for me to do. In every game playing this way took me down the paragon root which I was fine with. If memory serves I went through as a male solider class

Second time I go totally renegade with a female character of a different class (can't remember what one but had really cool abilities). Playing this way is loads of fun though a little harder i found and the story does not feel as natural but its a lot of fun.

Either way the ending of mass effect 3 remains a total fail.

a reply to: ketsuko

I like Jack in the 3rd one. Not so much in the 2nd one. But in the 3rd one, it's funny to see her acting like she does towards her students.

Zaheed is the one I loath.....he just rubs me the wrong way.

However, my favorite add on is Kasumi. It's the remarks she makes that crack me up, especially when fighting.

originally posted by: eriktheawful

So what about the rest of you out there that play ME? How do you play, and have any of you found it hard to play one way or another?

Usually Paragon except where renegade required

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

That I can agree on. When they released the extended ending, it made the full game just playable for me. Previously, I would just quit the game at the FOB in London and start over. The ending was that bad.

Now I can at least end it even though I still just click past the Star Child's faulty logic, shoot the damn tube and end it all.

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

Agree with you on the ending of 3.



None of them feel right: All that work and you're going to kill me off? DAMN YOU GAME!!!

However: there is a mod. If you install the mod, Shepard lives.

But the vanilla endings? Yah......blah.

Reminds me of this video on it:

originally posted by: eriktheawful
a reply to: ketsuko

I like Jack in the 3rd one. Not so much in the 2nd one. But in the 3rd one, it's funny to see her acting like she does towards her students.

Zaheed is the one I loath.....he just rubs me the wrong way.

However, my favorite add on is Kasumi. It's the remarks she makes that crack me up, especially when fighting.

Strangely, aside from the Suicide Mission, I never have liked ME2. I never picked up Kasumi. I view ME2 as a long, sloggy purgatory I must endure to get from the awesome beginning to the ending games which are both highly enjoyable for me flawed as the ending of it all is.

But then again, Kaidan was my favorite character next to Garrus, so making me spend an entire boring game slogging along with characters I mostly never cared about just sort of did the game in for me.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Thanks for reminding me! As I read your OP, I thought, "I think I have that game!". Sure enough I bought the trilogy and it is sitting next to my expensive Blue Ray player (PS3). Never played it....

I will have to check it out!

a reply to: ketsuko

I know, I'm the black sheep: I actually enjoyed ME2.

I hate the combat system in the first game, so the 2nd one was a joy to switch to.

But I liked the exploring and mining in the 2nd game.

Yah, I know. Most of the fans hated that part.....I strange like that.

There were some characters introduced in the 2nd one that I grew fond of.

Mordin. I really liked him a lot. Kasumi....sorry, but her loyalty mission was just too much fun for me to do.

Miranda and Jacob....meh...they are okay, but......meh.

Captain Baily....but that's because he's voice acted by Michael Hogan from BSG fame.

a reply to: seeker1963

Have fun!

Hope we didn't spoil you too much.

a reply to: eriktheawful

ME2 was my favourite

Even with that annoying mining mini-game.

originally posted by: eriktheawful
a reply to: seeker1963

Have fun!

Hope we didn't spoil you too much.

Nah, hell you made 7 Days to Die look so fun I bought it on steam and totally suck at it! I had more fun watching your videos than playing the damn thing!

I am hooked on Elder Scrolls online for the time being. The fishing is soooooooo relaxing!

originally posted by: OtherSideOfTheCoin
a reply to: eriktheawful

ME2 was my favourite

Even with that annoying mining mini-game.

I loved Mass Effect 2, it really improved on the combat from 1 and still had RPG elements in it which I personally appreciated (as opposed to the 3rd's horrid attempt at multiplayer).

The Collectors had an enigma of their own, and - I am not going to spoil anything for anyone, nor should anyone else - finding out their origins... wow, talk about good writing.

The Suicide Mission was arguably my favorite moment from the entire trilogy, but it's hard to pick out of the dozen or so that simply blew my mind.

Mass Effect 3 was absolutely amazing... up until the last ten minutes or so. For those who were also disappointed - I felt as if there were numerous plot-holes, out of place characters, The Star Child, it was almost as if after 90+ hours of solid writing, the just gave up or were too rushed to really "wrap it up," if you will - I would look up The Indoctrination Theory. It's a fan-made "ending," but in my opinion, makes much more sense than the Extended Crap BioWare released.

Regardless, the Mass Effect trilogy is one of my favorite series, and by far has my favorite storyline of any other video game, book, movie, etc ever written. There was something about The Reapers that I just found to be so badass.

a reply to: eriktheawful

I would have liked ME2 more if I had gotten hooked into the story or if it had been my first introduction into the game I think.

The gameplay was awesome, no doubt, but I need a story I'm engaged in to want to play through it, and the main storyline was too diluted by the all the daddy issues missions for characters I just wanted to rush past to finish the story.

I liked Thane quite a bit, but I think his concept would have been better served overall in a different game where he would have had an actual purpose beyond cool. I also liked Samara.

All of my Sheps would have simply tossed someone as unreliable as Jack though.

Human centric psychotic renegade space nazi all the way. It's just too much fun to be mean and piss everybody off, plus it goes with the involuntary crazy eye animations and facial ticks shephard seems to suffer from.