Category: Episode Enneagrams

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.

We’re at the Citadel, rejected once again by the Council. We do the usual — tour the tower, meet some old friends, gather a news person who will travel with us. It’s no surprise. Atmosphere and some fun moments are good content.

When we return to the Normandy we transition into a dream. A foggy, wooded landscape surrounds us. Laughter, and there’s the Boy. We must chase him, moving through molasses. Finally, he stops, looks at us, and dissolves into flames. Waking, Shepard is shaken.

Is Boy a metaphor for Shepard of the suffering on Earth? Perhaps he’s just an avatar, a storytelling way of keeping the invasion in our minds, to keep us connected to the threat of the Reapers. Or, he’s a ghost, a former corporeal being who haunts Shepard. 

This sequence in the middle of a shoot-em-up game is pretty damned annoying, especially if the game glitches and I have to play it again in all its slowness and with no chance to skip. (Yes, that happened.) Boy is still twee, and I still feel frustrated by having to watch him at all. When a developer stops my action to give me feels, they’d better earn it. The ending of ME1 is an example of this done brilliantly. At an early point like this, though, I feel emotionally manipulated. I want to learn fight mechanics and try out my skills. I don’t want an author’s message.

To be continued later, if I’m remembering correctly.

The Prothean archives have been on Mars forever. It’s the first alien ruin humans discovered before joining the galaxy. Now, though, as desperation kicks in, archaeologists, including Liara, give this site another look. Hidden here are plans for a Reaper-defeating weapon. The Protheans were so close to finishing it. We are to join with Liara and get this plan back to Alliance command.

However, Cerberus is after the same thing. They’re dressed as commandos, and they fight us for the Prothean information. When we lift the faceplate on one of the dead, we see he’s part-husk. At this point our old crewmate (Kaidan or Ashley) asks Shepard if she’s just a puppet, too, for Cerberus. They did rebuild Shepard, after all. 

The Reapers invade. Since the events of ME2, Shepard has been under house arrest. The Normandy was confiscated and Shepard’s been relieved of duty after she returned the hardware to the Alliance military. 

At least, I think that’s what happened. We only learn this through subtext while Captain Anderson brings Shepard up to speed now that her services are needed again. Her condition and reinstatement could’ve been told more traditionally, but instead we get the bang. As she addresses the Defense Committee, the Reapers arrive at Earth and blow everything to hell. Shepard and Anderson are on their own to — well, have a tutorial, lol — get to a shuttle. The graphics are astonishing. 

Humongous claw ships decimating the world make for emotional footage.

As Shepard follows Anderson through a building, something in the duct work catches her eye. It’s a boy, hiding. When she tries to coax him out, he says, “Everyone’s dying. You can’t help me.” A beat as she looks away, and he’s gone when she turns back. Actually, I’m going to name him Boy. He seems at this point like a twee ploy for feelings, but I remember that he’s more. I remember, honestly, that I hate his role in this story.

After a bit of fighting practice, Shepard arrives at the shuttle. Anderson stays behind to help with the battle for Earth. Shepard is to go on and convince the Council to help defend our homeworld. As the shuttle lifts off Shepard looks down at the other humans loading into other shuttles. There’s Boy, squinting up at her. He climbs aboard, and the two shuttles lift off. 

Shepard watches as both shuttles are cut by a Reaper beam and explode. Boy, assuming he’s a real person rather than a metaphor, is dead. Evocative music plays. (Why it’s the exact chord change as Rammstein’s “Wo bist du”, released years earlier, is a coincidence, I assume. Nice choice, though, if you’re going to accidentally borrow an existing work.)

The majority of gameplay is not story. Interesting, eh? Gathering teammates and achieving their loyalty missions is what clocks the hours. This means lots of fighting, which is good. How much plot is left, though? Let’s see.

LEFTOVER NINE

First of all, Shepard’s dead. How we die and how we’re brought back, at least from Shepard’s perspective, is the end of another tale. Miranda has a movie, let’s say, where she struggles to resurrect a person with no life signs. Waking Shepard is the Eight of that story, but what is it for this story? Is this a Leftover Nine or a One? Is the state of the world at the beginning the fact that Shepard died, or what happens when Shepard’s alive again? Either option has a good argument for it. I’m going to call it a Leftover Nine and see how the story unfolds from there.

ONE

Shepard’s alive. She has no idea what’s happening. Her last memory is of being spaced. The station where she awakes is under attack. Miranda’s voice, a stranger’s voice, tells her where to go (and directs a tutorial). She meets Jacob, who continues the tutorial and leads the escape from the science station. 

TWO

Before they rejoin Miranda and leave this location, Jacob reveals that we’re on a Cerberus facility. Cerberus, a monstrous organization in ME1, has rebuilt Shepard. Working with Cerberus, owing life itself to Cerberus, must be the Trouble.

THREE

So, what happens next? Shepard meets the Illusive Man for the first time. I have a hard time justifying that as a Three, though. The Illusive Man comes In, but he never really goes Out, certainly not at a Six position.

Shepard completes the first mission and the Collectors are revealed, but only on video feed. Veetor the Quarian’s data — Collectors In — is a possible Three.

After Freedom’s Progress Shepard is reunited with Joker and the Normandy, hired and built, respectively, by Cerberus. Like the Illusive Man moment, Joker has an In but not an Out. The ship and the pilot carry through the Eight and Nine.

I’m getting an inkling of an Enneagram problem, lol. It’s possible the Illusive Man is the Six, he’s just in the wrong position. Let’s carry on and see. Whoo, boy, I think I’m right, though. Interesting.

Through the Omega 4 Relay, our IFF integrated into the Normandy, we go with no expectation of returning. Prior to this each crew member has requested Shepard take them to complete some unfinished business. If the quest is finished to their satisfaction, they become loyal to Shepard. It’s hinted that their loyalty is important, and it is. Crew without the loyalty boost can die. If Shepard ends up with nobody left, she’ll die, too. Of course, on a first playthrough none of this is understood. Endgame in ME2 is gut-wrenching and nerve-wracking. Each phase of the battle through the Collector base has a specific way someone can fail.

When we get to the final battle we face a humongous human skeleton.

It’s a Reaper powered by the humans the Collectors have been juicing here in their base. Some kind of DNA broth mingles with Reaper technology? It’s not quite clear, and, of course, the whole point is to kill the thing. Whatever it is, it will never reach fruition.

And then it’s time to blow the Collector base. (Does that mean the entire race goes extinct? That question — something so vital to deciding the fate of the Rachni — is never raised.) The Illusive Man patches in and argues vociferously to save the base. A radiation pulse will take out all the Collectors, but the technology of this base can be saved. On the one hand, we have paragon Shepard who objects. Human goo powers this place. It’s abhorrent and morally offensive. On the other hand, we have renegade Shepard who can see the logic of the argument. All of this effort has been about eventually facing the Reapers, a super-powered machine race. Any knowledge gleaned from this base may be our only chance to defeat them. Don’t let the human sacrifice have been in vain.

If Shepard says no, the Illusive Man shows a very dark side of himself. He doesn’t just want to defeat the Reapers. He wants the tech in order to super-power humanity. This is our chance to use advanced knowledge to jump start the human race and control the galaxy. Cerberus has always been about improving humanity by any means necessary. For most of the mission he’s played nice, giving Shepard leeway to decide what’s best. If he’s denied this base, he becomes vicious. He’s only virtual, though, and the decision is Shepard’s.

And that’s where we end. Whoever lived is back on the Normandy with Shepard. Whatever the Illusive Man thinks, he says no more in this game. We stopped the harvesting of human colonies and learned a little bit more about the Reapers. Mostly, we made friends.