It’s hard to find a more epic end to a game than this one. The fight up the outside of the Citadel tower is exciting, Geth Destroyers and Krogan Warlords everywhere. Meanwhile, the Reaper ship Sovereign makes it inside the Citadel’s arms before they can close and attaches itself to the station. Like a creepy cockroach it suctions onto the point of the Citadel Tower. We must climb the exterior, coming ever closer to its massive wiggling arms.
Here’s the final showdown with Saren. It’s a little strange. Because Shepard has full points, respectively, in renegade and paragon, we don’t fight him. We just convince him that he’s a puppet for the Reapers. When he understands, he shoots himself in the head and falls off the platform to a garden area below.
During this lull, the Citadel warship with the Council aboard calls for assistance. Sovereign is docked and Geth ships swarm the air space. Although the Council ship is powerful, it’s no match for a battle this size. Now comes a decision point for Shepard. The Alliance fleet is ready and standing by. Do they save the Council, or do they wait to engage once the arms are open and Sovereign is vulnerable?
Tag the Renegade holds the fleet back and lets the Council die. Ace the Paragon saves them. Of course the game insists on trade-offs for each decision. If I save the Council, more Alliance fighters are killed by Sovereign. However, early on the game gushed about the Council ship, how powerful it is. Where the hell is it in the fight? Hiding? Where’s that big gun in the final fight? Pitiful. Saving the Council gives no military advantage or parity. All the politicians in the game are asshats, anyway, so why save them? Unfortunate writing there.
It’s after this decision that dead Saren rises up. His organic parts are gone, his cyborg parts are reactivated by Sovereign, and his husk attacks. This is the final battle, and if the gamer thought that the earlier lame confrontation was the end of Saren, they’re in for a surprise. It’s tough enough. He’s a wily husk, lol. I definitely had a couple of gameplays where I was forced to reload.
As our battle ends, the fleet defeats Sovereign outside the station.
Now the ship falls onto the Citadel, crashing arms and mechanical parts landing right on the area where Shepard stands. A cut scene of the settling destruction takes over, rescuers looking among the wreckage. The two teammates are found, and everyone looks around at the mess while the music swells. From under a piece, Shepard emerges, safe. I cried the first time I saw this scene, and I cried this last time. It’s just a beautifully edited and constructed piece of filmmaking. I even cried when I replayed it as my other Shephard. Really, all congratulations to everyone who designed that sequence and composed the emotional music. It’s worth a million playthroughs.
The epilogue is a meeting with Captain Anderson and Ambassador Udina to discuss Shepard’s choice about the Council. For Renegade Tag, the Council is dead and humanity is the galaxy’s hero. Our kind of brash aggressiveness is considered trustworthy now that Sovereign’s been defeated by us. We will run the Council and Anderson (who I chose over Udina) will head it.
For Paragon Ace, the Council is alive and very sincerely grateful to humanity. We get a seat on the Council now because we fought on behalf of everyone. (Too bad for the Volus, who want a seat and will never get one if this is the criteria, lol.)
It’s more clear in the paragon version that the Council considers the defeat of Sovereign an end to that whole pesky Reaper problem. Shepard wants to push, but the government will move on to other things. In a way, a government can’t commit to such a galaxy-wide problem without more provocation. It’s just the way of bureaucracy. That definitely leaves the door open for a private organization to take up the fight.
From here it’s on to Mass Effect 2. I can’t wait!