Mass Effect is a layered, complex, choice-based RPG that highlights the morally grey areas of our existence. There’s supposed to be no wrong way to play… but damn, you found one.
EA recently revealed a Mass Effect: Legendary Edition infographic detailing a bunch of stats tied to how people played through the trilogy. Some were fairly typical – Garrus, a mandatory recruit with a simple loyalty mission and a popular love interest, is the most likely character to survive the suicide mission. He’s one of the tankiest squadmates and even if you do everything wrong, he has a high chance to make it. Mordin, one of the squishiest squadmates – who is often misused in the suicide mission due to a weird design decision – is the least likely to survive. These choices aren’t what I mean when I say ‘you played it wrong,’ however. I mean on a fundamental level, so many people had the worst Mass Effect experience possible.
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Let’s start with Shepard. The split between the male Shepard and FemShep was 68-32, in male Shepard’s favour. This is significantly better than for the original trilogy, where it was 82-18. It’s a shame the gay romance options that were cut either because of Fox News or just as part of the trimming involved in general game development weren’t added to the Legendary Edition, since FemShep-Miri, FemShep-Tali, or FemShep-Jack pairings might have raised that 32 percent even higher. I doubt Ashley, the space racist, would have had too much impact.
The 2012 stats versus 2021 show the FemShep rate has almost doubled (just four percent off), which is incredible. But it still means close to 70 percent of you are playing the game wrong. Look, Mark Meer does a great job of leaning into the more campy schtick of Mass Effect, and it’s the only way to romance Miranda, Jack, or Tali. One of my many regular Mass Effect runs is as male Shepard precisely to experience these romances. But I’m yet to meet a hardcore Mass Effect fan who would argue male Shepard is the best way to play – Jennifer Hale’s performance is just too good, and so many of you are missing it.
It’s not just that you all picked the male Shepard option – although please tell me you at least customised their face. You picked Soldier on me, after I specifically asked you not to.
Soldier, the shooty-shooty class that makes Mass Effect play the same way as every third-person shooter ever, was again the most popular choice. Not the classes that give you magic blue psychokinesis, or allow you to hack the wiring of your enemies, or give you a mini battle droid, but the one with the guns. Guns that go shooty-shooty. I mean, 40 percent of you played as Soldiers, which is almost double the 21 percent of people who played the next most popular class, Vanguard. Vanguard gives you practically all the benefits of Soldier anyway, but combines it with the biotic powers that form a key part of Mass Effect’s combat. My class of choice, Adept (raw Biotic), took just 11 percent of players.
Again, these numbers are improvements. Soldier pick-up has dropped by just over a third; 64.59 percent of players just shot people in 2012. This extra percentage is spread out evenly, with each other class getting a boost. Even Engineer, the hardest class to play as, doubled in popularity from 2.59 percent to 5 percent. Infiltrator, the Tech-Soldier class, was actually the most popular non-Soldier class in 2012, with 11.02 percent. It’s third in 2021 with 15 percent. Vanguard, on 21 now, had 9.33 back in 2012. Sentinel, the raw Tech class, is the only one without a mention here, so let’s fix that. It finishes fifth in both lists, but has seen a slight bump from 5.04 percent to 8 percent.
The majority of you also chose to be Earthborn, the most boring origin, but in fairness this one at least doesn’t influence the game in any major way.
That’s an important point too – I know some of you will be upset, even angry that I’m suggesting you’re playing a choice-based RPG wrong. It happened back before the Legendary Edition launched, when I suggested you try not romancing Tali and Garrus to let them romance each other instead. We read the hate mail. We read it all.
The thing is though, I’m not even talking about your choices. By picking Soldier, you rob yourself of the different shades of Mass Effect combat. By picking male Shepard, you miss out on the experience practically every hardcore fan would point to.
There are some caveats here. Some players may have made atypical choices, specifically doing something different to their original run to try it out. We can’t tell how many are former FemShep Adepts trying to figure out why male Shepard Soldier is such a big deal, and how many are ex-vanilla players trying something new though, so there’s no analysis to be found there.
If I wanted to get into your choices, I could pick those apart too. A significant chunk of them are in the 90+ percentile, which suggests everyone was looking up how to get a perfect outcome, but of all the ones that aren’t, you’re making the wrong choice every time. Saving Ashley over Kaidan? I know he’s not the most interesting guy, but at least he’s not a racist. And punching the reporter? We’re better than that. Sure, she’s a bit of a hack, but she’s terrified, and she doesn’t think anyone is standing up for humanity. She’s there with her boots on the ground to find the truth, and if you listened to her, you’d know that. Still, 68 percent of you used your position as the most high-ranking cop in the galaxy to punch a female reporter and get away with it. That’s the same split (68-32) as chose male Shepard. I’m not saying all the men punched the reporter and all the women didn’t, but it highlights that around two thirds of Mass Effect players just go for the most obvious option every time.
“It doesn’t affect you how I play my game!” you might cry, and sure, that’s true. Except I don’t want games to cater to the obvious choice so often. Most of you chose to play Mass Effect as a man with a gun – you know, the lead character of basically every game ever. More than that though, Mass Effect – specifically Mass Effect 2 – is my favourite game ever. I know every corner of it, and I want everyone who plays it to experience it at its best. Looking at these choices, too many of you haven’t.
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