The Mass Effect trilogy will forever be cemented in the hall of greats. BioWare’s first title in the series celebrates its 16th birthday this year, and in honor of N7 Day today, we couldn’t help but look back on some of our favorite moments from the series.
If you haven’t played any of the Mass Effect games—first of all, can you even call yourself a gamer? But for those of you who still have it on your backlog after all these years, be warned: massive spoilers ahead.
7) Sovereign’s introduction
When you start your Mass Effect journey, things are straightforward. Saren has recruited an army of Geth and is using it and his Spectre status to wreak havoc on the galaxy. But as Shepard quickly realizes: Nothing’s ever simple, is it?
On Virmire, what’s arguably the turning point for the rest of the franchise, Shepard and the Normandy crew discover the true extent of what the Milky Way forces are up against—and it ain’t no Geth. Instead, you meet the ugly face of Sovereign and learn how the “Reapers” are, in fact, real. This meeting leads to one of the best monologues in the franchise and sets an ominous tone for the rest of the trilogy.
6) Kirrahe’s “Hold the Line” speech
If there’s one thing BioWare did right with Mass Effect, it’s the trilogy’s dialogue. And we can’t mention Virmire without jumping into Captain Kirrahe’s legendary “Hold the Line” speech.
Mass Effect writers perfectly captured the grandeur behind the best battle speeches in the build-up to the Virmire fight. With worldbuilding that offers a brief glimpse into the Salarians’ role in history and rhetoric fitting for a speech of presidential proportions, Kirrahe’s “Hold the Line” monologue marked the climax of the Virmire mission in the original Mass Effect.
“Our influence stopped the Rachni, but before that, we held the line. Our influence stopped the Krogan, but before that, we held the line. Our influence will stop Saren. In the battle today, we will hold the line.”
We got shivers.
5) Garrus and Shepard’s shooting contest on the Citadel
Everyone has their favorites, but there’s no debate Garrus is the best Mass Effect companion. Sorry Liara!
He’s either you’re favorite wingman or your loyal lover, and his side mission where he takes you shooting on top of the Citadel is a universally beloved scene across the Mass Effect fanbase regardless of your relationship with the Turian. You can choose to let him win—in which case he playfully mocks you—or you can rub your expertise in his face if you’re truly awful.
Either way, it’s a fun moment with arguably one of the best-written NPCs in gaming history. If you’re romancing Garrus, it’s also the first time you drop the big “I love you” to take the relationship to the next stage.
4) The Citadel DLC party
Between Garrus and Zaeed workshopping ways to booby-trap Shepard’s apartment, and Grunt, Wrex, and Shepard’s hilarious back-and-forth conversation, the party scene from The Citadel DLC is one of the best moments in Mass Effect 3. You get to dance with your companions and reminisce about earlier moments in the trilogy before the final send-off for the crew in the morning.
While some call The Citadel fan-service, it’s everything we could’ve asked for from a DLC: one last way to kick back with your companions before heading back into the thick of war, and it’s chock-full of hilarious lines, fun minigames, and heartwarming scenes.
3) Companions’ goodbyes in Extended Cut DLC
The Mass Effect: Extended Cut DLC addressed many fans’ concerns about how the original ending of the franchise lacked closure by adding new cinematics during the Priority: Earth mission and the game’s epilogue. One of these many scenes is the evacuation of your companion member.
As Shepard and their companion rush toward the Crucible, their squad members are critically wounded by Harbinger’s attack and are transported to safety by the Normandy. Depending on who’s in your squad and which companion you romanced in your playthrough, you’ll get different scenes and dialogue—all of which are heart-wrenching.
Our personal favorite was Garrus’s goodbye. Jennifer Hale knocked it out of the park with her convincing voice performance as a distraught Shepard in the romanced version of the scene.
2) Anderson’s final scene
From the moment he hands you the keys to the Normandy in the original Mass Effect to his final breath in Mass Effect 3, Captain David Anderson acts as a father figure to Shepard. Over the course of the trilogy, he stands up to the council on their behalf and mentors them through the Normandy crew’s many missions. His parental influence is only further strengthened when you take into consideration most of Shepard’s potential background origin stories leave them parentless; in only one option is Shepard’s mother alive.
During Mass Effect 3‘s battle for Earth, Anderson and Shepard enter the Crucible to stop the Reapers once and for all. Anderson is gravely wounded, and in his final moments, he commends Shepard for their service to the galaxy in the fight against the machine race.
“You did good, child.”
Anyone got any tissues?
1) “Had to be me. Someone else could’ve gotten it wrong”
In the final moments of Priority: Tuchanka in Mass Effect 3, you’ll be met with one of the most powerful scenes in all of video game history.
This was first moment in my many years of gaming where I had to put down the controller and process what I had just experienced. From Mordin’s expressed regret about not having enough time to run his seashell experiments to him gently humming his Salarian Scientist nursery rhyme to steady himself, Mordin’s self-sacrifice and his justification for it remain one of, if not the most heart-wrenching scenes in the entire trilogy.
If Shepard informs Mordin of the Salarians’ failsafe, it’s one of the only times Mordin—a Salarian of few, but quick words—uses the personal pronoun “I,” and it’s yelled in a moment of overwhelming guilt: “I made a mistake!” It may only be a single letter, but word nerds like me will recognize its weight as a subtle, but profound change in the Salarian’s manner of speaking that strikes true to his acknowledgement of the role he played in defending the Krogans’ sterilization.
