The Catalyst docks with the Crucibleover a war-ravaged Earth
This is my granddaddy review of the entire gaming trilogy. It’s been a lot of fun (and a little bit of frustration) to play through it all again. If the plot is too long to read, I hope you’ll jump to my Critical Notes at the end
ONE
We meet Shepard and the Normandy. Humans are a new addition to the galaxy civilization, which includes multiple races. Geth, though, are an AI race that most of the worlds have never seen in person. We learn about the universe’s elite special forces group just in time to meet our ME1 villain, a rogue Spectre named Saren.
TWO
The First Beacon overwhelms Shepard and implants a vision in her brain. At this point she doesn’t know what it means, only that something bad happened. War, destruction. Later we look back and realize this is the first warning about the Reapers, delivered by the Protheans, a doomed race that was wiped out.
Jump down to my Critical Notes if you can’t stand one more pass at the plot, lol.
ONE
The Reapers land on Earth. We knew it was coming, but it’s worse than we ever imagined.
TWO
The Boy doesn’t escape in the shuttle, which is destroyed. All of the Mars mission is included in this section: Finding the ultimate Prothean device. (Using it — the Crucible — is the key to the Eight.)
Shepard reaches for the Citadel console, even though she sees no other button to press, and collapses before she can solve the problem. That’s when the floor panel she lies on rises up and ascends.
She’s lifted to a new area, and there he is. It’s Boy, limned as a transparent computer construct. He chastises her. He’s in charge, the one who directs the Reapers to harvest mature civilizations. It’s the only way to save organic life. Eventually every species will reach a point where synthetic life will threaten them. Before all organics are killed, the Catalyst — Boy — looses the Reapers. Mature species are processed to become new Reapers. Immature species are left alone to develop over the next 50,000 years.
The galaxy throws everything at Earth as Shepard prepares to shuttle down to London. Before landing, Joker rises from his pilot’s chair and salutes us. It’s a pause in the story that feels like a key beat.
Then we’re on the ground. It’s a good battle that turns absolutely hellacious as we fire up missiles to take out the Reaper blocking the street ahead.
The Reapers are sending humans up to the Citadel via this conduit, a giant light beam. It’s our only way in, as the Citadel arms are closed.
Most of this is straightforward endgame. Teammates have tender goodbyes, fighting is at its most difficult, and the prospects are very grim. Shepard holds it together, encouraging soldiers that we’ll win, but this is a dark ruin of a future.
Chasing after Kai Leng and the Illusive Man, Shepard finds Sanctuary, a world devoted to taking refugees. However, it’s a false front. Cerberus is using the humans for experiments on Reaper indoctrination, turning people into husks. Miranda’s father leads the research. He does discover a way to reverse engineer the process, so that he thinks he can command Reapers. Kai Leng escapes with the data and returns to the Illusive Man. Because Miranda’s planted a tracker on Leng, he leads Shepard and the Alliance to Cerberus’ doorstep.
Admiral Hackett goes for a final check-in: once the fleet makes a move on the Illusive Man, the Reapers will become aware. The Crucible is ready except for the Catalyst. Everyone hopes that the Illusive Man knows what it is and how to implement it. Otherwise, humanity battles Reapers over Earth as, probably, a last stand. Shepard gives the go-ahead.
Immediately, we’re back in the molasses realm, chasing that Boy.
Shepard in armor watches as Boy runs into the arms of Shepard in casual wear. They all gaze at each other. Shepard awakens in bed wearing her underwear. (This is the point where Shepard becomes intimate with anyone she romanced. I just couldn’t work up the energy to care, although I’ve pursued all the options in the past.)
And then we’re on Cronos Station, the Illusive Man’s base.
It’s a straightforward fight into the center to recover the Prothean VI. Along the way we see the giant skeleton Reaper from the Collector base. Apparently the Illusive Man retrieved it. It’s just hanging there in tatters.
Many worlds are burning, including the Asari homeworld. Finally the Asari Councilor informs us that a religious temple there has an important artifact. We go to retrieve it.
The fight against Reaper minions is tough. When we reach the temple the place is deserted, the scientists dead with their throats cut. Liara, who insists on accompanying us, tells us this temple is ancient, a legacy of a near-dead religion. The large statue of the goddess, though, hums for Shepard. She can hear it. Underneath the statue facade lies a Prothean beacon, intact.
Briefly we can lament that the Asari, the most advanced species in the galaxy, hoarded the Beacon and gleaned knowledge that propelled them to their status. The universe really could’ve used this information earlier in its battle against the Reapers.
This is one of the more fascinating themes of the story. Quarians invent Geth as a servant robot race, but they’re AI and they evolve into consciousness. When the Quarians realize this, they decide to wipe out the Geth. The Geth resist and fight back. Eventually the Quarians are driven from their homeworld and have since lived for centuries on the Migrant Fleet, a flotilla of nomadic spaceships that house the entire race.
Chase Boy through a dead forest again. This time shadowy smoke figures fade in and out, while our dead companion’s voice (either Ashley’s or Kaidan’s) relives their last moment. The dead haunt Shepard.
Just as Shepard reaches Boy, a Reaper light shines on him and he runs, giggling as if he’s playing tag. (Is it wrong I wish Shepard could draw her gun? Too Renegade?) Again he finally stops and gives a last, soulful look as he bursts into flame.
The idea that Shepard doesn’t sleep — she’s too busy to rest — and then when she finally does it’s not restful, may or may not resonate later in the story. She’s still mentally and physically sharp. It’s only when she awakens that she’s not herself. Weakness and vulnerability are not normal characteristics for her. However, this is immediately after Mordin’s scene, so fatigue born of anguish is logical.
And now Udina, the politician Bioware wants us to hate, actually becomes a villain. We’re called to the Citadel. Cerberus, with Udina’s cooperation, has attacked.
Our first encounter with Kai Leng, the Illusive Man’s henchman, is here, and we barely rescue the Council from a kidnapping. Also, our teammate (Kaidan or Ashley) doesn’t understand. They defend the Council, following Udina’s lead to usher them into the waiting shuttle. We actually have a guns-drawn showdown before we can resolve the stand-off.
Anderson and Miranda, separately, mention knowing Kai Leng and fearing his fighting skills. For Shepard, though, he’s a new character.
It’s strange to introduce someone critical at this point in the trilogy. He’s just a dude, probably enhanced and indoctrinated, but he feels like a lazy creation. I wish they’d incorporated him earlier. How awesome would that have made our fights! And I wish they’d given him a more distinct character design. Nothing about him furthers the story. He’s just a boss battle with none of the pizazz.
One little story drop that only makes sense later: Anderson asks why Cerberus would be interested in taking control of the Citadel. In retrospect, after playing endgame, I realize that the Illusive Man has a small part of the Prothean archive data from Mars. He has the Catalyst portion. I like when a game ups the replayability with subtle plants like this.
Wrex has one condition for leading the Krogan against the Reapers: cure the genophage. He wants his people to thrive, and he also wants some payback. Salarians invented the genophage and Turians distributed it across the Krogan planet. Now these two races need hardy and indefatigable warriors to defend their homeworlds.
We find Mordin with a Krogan female who is immune. As he brings her back to health, he also develops the cure. Meanwhile, we assist the Turian Primarch in defusing a bomb, and Wrex with a Krogan team that’s discovered a Rachni nest. (Consequences related to the Rachni queen decision on ME1 are relatively insignificant here, a huge disappointment.)
When the cure’s ready, Mordin’ll use the same delivery method the Turians used for the genophage, a monument called The Shroud, to spread the airborne cure across the world.
As we prepare to deliver the cure, a Reaper latches itself onto The Shroud, cutting off our access. The Turians send air support, and the Krogan travel overland with Mordin. It’s not going to be enough, though, to defeat the Reaper.
And then the Krogan remember Kalros, the mother of all Thresher Maws who lives beneath the planet’s surface. Shepard must activate the hammers that call her. (I had forgotten how difficult this moment is. As I gasped with only one health bar I finally remembered to stop fighting and run like hell. Heh, good times.)
Kalros attacks the Reaper in an epic cut scene. Great game making, oh yeah.
The way is now clear, and Mordin can go up the tower and disperse the cure. Ah, dear. So many variations are possible at this moment based on earlier choices in ME2. It’s everything gamers want, all the consequences that can result from our actions, and the final scene is as emotionally powerful as the end of ME1. In every way that Bioware failed with the Rachni result, they exceeded all expectations with the Krogan plot. This is stellar storytelling. Sometimes the genophage is cured, and Shepard genuinely celebrates with the Krogan. Sometimes it isn’t, and Shepard flat out lies to their happy faces. And every time, the wonderful Mordin is dead.
Alright, back to the action! As we know, the Council won’t help Earth. Each species wants to defend their own planet first, which isn’t completely illogical. However, the Turian Councilor meets with Shepard and Udina separately and suggests that the leaders of each world organize a war effort that bypasses the Council. His Primarch is a military general fighting on the Turian homeworld’s moon. Shepard will go there and recruit him.
However, when we get there, we learn that this general is dead. War with the Reapers is everywhere. The next in line for Primarch is another general defending a distant location. We march to him, fighting along the way. Also, we get a little backstory about the different races and some of the IP’s history (for those gamers who started the trilogy here). Garrus is with us, which is great. And the scenery, the game design, is utterly magnificent.
We find the general, inform him of his promotion, and take him with us on the Normandy. We’ve got one leader! Millions are dead, though, and the Turian military is overwhelmed. If we want to stand any chance, he says, we must convince the Krogan to join us. The Asari and Salarians won’t like this, but we need every species in the galaxy if we’ve any chance of winning.
