Mass Effect 3 (Alt)

Alternate Mass Effect 3.

This time your squad is more diverse but its make-up depends upon your past choices.

There are three "paths" in the game dependent upon which major faction you decide to support. Each one has at least one or two unique missions. Other missions have a different context or objective based on which faction you are with.

 

The FACTIONS:

 

Cerberus - You must keep the Collector base in Mass Effect 2.

Alliance - No prerequisites.

Council - The original Council must still be alive.

 

Note: A vanilla game without an import save has the Council dead and the Collector base destroyed, leaving the player with no choice but to follow the Alliance quest-line.

 

Siding with the Council makes recruiting the salarians, asari, and turians much easier. They are also all stronger after the Alliance took heavy losses in Mass Effect 1.

Siding with the Alliance makes recruiting the "lesser" races such as the hanar, elcor, and quarians, ect... easier. The Alliance is stronger if you let the Council die in ME1.

Siding with Cerberus makes recruiting all of the races harder, but you get more money, better weapons, and better upgrades.

 

Squadmates organized by faction:

 

Alliance exclusive: Ashley, Kaidan, James Vega, Tali

Cerberus exclusive: Miranda, Jacob, Kai Leng, Legion (if sold to Cerberus)

Council exclusive: Kaidan, Garrus (if Paragon in both ME1 and ME2), Kolyat, Tali

 

A note on Legion: If he was sold to Cerberus then they reprogram him and give him a new paint-job and armor. You can only get him if you side with Cerberus, otherwise he will attack you along with Kai Leng at some point. Otherwise, if Legion was recruited like normal in ME2, then he will join you regardless of your faction choice. However if you are with the Alliance you will need to pass a speech-check (maybe need high Paragon/Renegade and/or Spectre status).

 

A note on Jack: She will join you as long as you aren't with Cerberus, but you will need to pass a speech-check and/or have Spectre status to waive her criminal warrants. If you've sided with Cerberus then at some point you will need lure her into a trap and kill her to bring an end to her vendetta against Cerberus.

 

A note on Garrus: If you "Paragon" him in ME1 and ME2 then by ME3 he has gotten control of his life and found some stability. He is dedicated to the Council system and will not join you if you are with Cerberus or the Alliance. If however you "Renegade" him then he will be directionless and will join you no matter which faction you join. However as he is less focused and has less morale he will take the loss of Palaven harder, which may have fatal consequences.

 

A note on Zaeed: If you let him get his revenge in ME2 (kill Vido) then he will join you in ME3 regardless of your affiliations and completely free of charge. If however you let Vido escape then you must pay him a fee and after the Citadel Coup, if you are not with Cerberus, then it will be revealed that Cerberus has paid him to turn on you. You will be forced to kill him.

 

A note on Grunt: If Wrex did not survive Virmire then Grunt will ultimately turn on you. He respects Shepard greatly and has decided that Shepard is the most worthy enemy he could ever face. He will attack you with his band of krogan warriors and you will be forced to kill him. If you left him in his tank in ME2 and you side with Cerberus in ME3 then you can get an additional upgrade. If Wrex survived Virmire and you killed the thresher maw in ME2 then Grunt will join you as a full squadmate at the conclusion of the Tuchanka questline.

 

A note on Samara: If you are a Renegade then in ME3 she will vow to kill you. This will also occur if you do not side with the Council during the Citadel Coup. You must, of-course, kill her when she attacks you. If however you saved Morinth in ME2 then Morinth will join you regardless of your affiliations in ME3.

 

 

INTRO LEVEL:

 

The game begins with Shepard's trial on Earth. We answer a sequence of questions, invoking brief flashbacks, which tell us the story of Mass Effect so far and the different choices our Shepard made. Commander Shepard is then returned to his cell. Inside he is jarred awake by the sounds of gun-fire and battle. The VS then appears and frees him from his cell. You flee for the Normandy and use it to escape. Currently the ship is deserted aside from Shepard, Vega, the VS, Joker, and of-course EDI.  (If Chakwas survived ME2 she is here as well)

 

We learn that Joker (and Chakwas) were spies for the Alliance all along.

 

After lifting off the VS is directed by Admiral Hackett to land at Mars and extract sensitive intel from the Prothean archive there. Once there you find the remains of a battle fought in orbit (a dead Reaper and debris from several Alliance ships). Inside the base it is overrun with husks and other Reaper forces and you eventually meet Kai Leng and Miranda and Jacob (if they survived ME2). They inform you that they are on the same mission, but on the behalf of the Illusive Man who does not trust the Alliance to utilize this information in an expedient fashion. The VS is taken aback, but the Cerberus operatives speak of the Alliance's slowness to act against the Collector threat and ask you to help them instead. Before you can make a choice the group is attacked by husks and split up. Shepard can make a split second decision to escape with Kai Leng and co or with the VS and Vega. Whichever choice you make you'll have to run back to the Normandy before the other team can get there. If you don't get there in time it's game-over.

 

IF YOU SIDED WITH CERBERUS:

 

You direct the Normandy to the same space station you visited after leaving Lazarus in ME2. There you chat with the Illusive Man and are given a rundown of the state of the galaxy. If the Normandy crew survived ME2 then they rejoin the Normandy now, otherwise a smaller generic crew is assigned that you can't interact with as much. TIM advises Shepard head for either Sur'Kesh or Rannoch. TIM is hatching a scheme to unite krogan and salarians (while maintaining human dominance) and believes he can end the war between the geth and quarians.

 

You can head directly to these missions or visit Omega where you can recruit Kasumi/Zaeed and/or investigate other systems for side-quests.

 

You will be advised that the Alliance and Council now consider you a fugitive. You will not be able to visit the Citadel until after the Coup is complete.

 

The N7 insignias on your armor are now swapped with Cerberus insignias.

 

IF YOU SIDED WITH THE ALLIANCE:

 

The VS directs the Normandy to the Citadel. There a new crew is assigned to the Normandy and you are asked to meet with the Council. At the meeting you are asked by the Council to reaffirm your job as a Spectre (status is offered again if you didn't get it in ME2). However this means putting the needs of the galaxy before those of humanity. You are asked to resign from the Alliance and commit yourself to the Council fully.

 

If you decline and were not given your Spectre status back in ME2 then you do not get it back here. If you did get your Spectre status back then you can keep it, but the Council is unhappy.

 

Depending on which side you choose you are given different options for major plot missions.

 

The Alliance directs you to visit Sur'kesh and Palaven. They've hatched a plan to unite the krogan, salarians, and turians in a massive armada. However you can also visit Omega and explore other systems for side-quests.

 

IF YOU SIDE WITH THE COUNCIL:

 

They direct you to visit Thessia to extract another piece of Prothean intel or to head to Palaven and break the Reaper siege of that world. As with the other factions you also have the choice to visit Omega and explore other systems.

 

If Ashley is in your game she will be unhappy with you abandoning the Alliance and leaves your command. Hackett however informs you that in the interests of cooperation the Normandy and its crew will stay with you.

 

From this point forward you will have Spectre insignias on your armor instead of N7's.

 

 

THESSIA:

 

This mission is different if you have sided with Cerberus. You arrive later after the Reaper invasion is well underway and the asari are near total defeat. The Alliance/Council are struggling to reach the Prothean artifact you need. Shepard's team lands and must fight through Reaper forces and then steal the artifact from the joint Alliance/Council strike-team, which is lead by either Kaidan or Ashley and James Vega. When the two teams meet a speech-check can be used to stall the rival team while your own grabs the artifact, otherwise a brief gunfight ensues (but does not become lethal).

 

This mission is harder for Cerberus as they have less time to reach their objective and more enemies to fight through. If you fail to reach the artifact before the other team then they escape with the artifact, forcing Shepard to acquire it during the Citadel Coup (necessitating that he split up his team). In addition, he'll have to fight off a Reaper assault before he can extract his team from Thessia. The end result is that because Cerberus has less time to use the Prothean artifact they are less effective with it, reducing your war assets at the end. Whether you succeed in taking the artifact or not the asari suffered heavier losses in the attack and are weaker in the end-game.

 

 

THE COUP:

 

Udina makes a deal with the Illusive Man to steal control of the Council and use it to abandon Kahje and instead commit needed forces in the defense of several important besieged human colonies. Shepard's role in this plot is dependent upon which faction he joined. If you are with the Alliance or with Cerberus you help the coup, this means assassinating the alien councilors with the help of Cerberus. If Garrus is Paragon then you'll have to kill him. Kolyat as well must be subdued.

 

If however you are aligned with the Council then you must uncover Udina's plot and prevent the assassination. You will have to kill the VS and fight with Kai Leng.

 

At the final confrontation at the end of this mission you have the chance to defect to one side or the other, but be warned that doing so will mean you'll lose the support of whatever faction you are with. Any missions or actions you've taken upon their behalf up to this point may now work against you. You'll have very little credibility with the new faction you join and nobody will really trust you.

 

If the coup succeeds then Kahje is lost, resulting in the near total extinction of the drell and billions of hanar dead. However forces are sent to safeguard humanity's largest colonies, keeping the Alliance afloat and saving several million humans. In the prologue humanity will have an easier time rebuilding.

 

If the coup fails then Kahje is saved (and recruited to the war effort) but humanity's largest colonies are lost to the Reapers. The Alliance is weakened and in the aftermath of the war humanity will be left weak, struggling to rebuild.

 

Note on Admiral Hackett: He has no knowledge of the Coup but will ultimately support whomever comes out on top. As such, the Alliance Normandy crew stays with you regardless of which choice you make here.

 

PROJECT OVERLORD:

 

If you side with Cerberus then this is the first mission in the Rannoch questline. Otherwise it comes up near the middle.

 

The Reapers have uncovered the location of Project Overlord, a Cerberus initiative intended to use a human/VI interface to control the geth. If you sided with Cerberus then the Illusive Man will send you to protect the facility as soon as it is attacked. Otherwise you will not be informed until later when Miranda manages to get a distress call to you. Arriving later results in more of the facility being destroyed and the effectiveness of the Overlord system is reduced. When you arrive you find a quarian strike-force under the command of Daro'Xen, lead by Tali (groundside), also attacking the base. They will help you fight through to the control center.

 

After fighting through Reaper forces, Reaper-allied geth, and indoctrinated Cerberus personnel, you reach the Overlord interface itself. At this point you have a choice. Tali can rig the system to send out a pulse that will scramble and destroy several geth hubs, greatly weakening them. Daro'Xen will ask that you activate the system and transfer control over to her. TIM will contact you at this point and demand that the system be activated and left under the command of Cerberus. Lastly, after coming face to face with the horror of how the Overlord system works, Shepard can instead decide to deactivate it completely (rescue David Archer).

 

Note: If you joined Cerberus then you must take Miranda on this mission. Otherwise you will find her in the control room at the end.

 

If you side with Tali then both TIM and Xen will be displeased. TIM will authorize Kai Leng and co to eliminate Shepard if you are not with Cerberus. If you are with Cerberus he will be very unhappy with you. Miranda will try to intervene and be killed by Tali/Shepard. The quarians have an easier time retaking Rannoch.

 

If you side with Daro'Xen, then Tali is displeased, you must kill Miranda, and the quarians will have a much easier time retaking Rannoch. In the end you will be able to recruit both the quarians and a sizable geth force.

 

If you side with TIM, then Tali will attack you, forcing you to kill her. Additionally, Xen's forces in orbit will attempt to destroy the facility and to protect it TIM will fire on them with the geth, killing them all. Cerberus gains a geth fleet they can commit to the defense of Earth (and use elsewhere), but the quarians have a harder time retaking Rannoch with the loss of Admiral Xen's strike-force and Tali's geth expertise.

 

If you decide to deactivate Overlord then Tali will support your choice, but you'll have to kill Miranda. Additionally, Xen will order her men to stop you. If you pass a speech check you can talk them all down but otherwise you'll have a short shoot-out with some of them. Either way Xen will have some choice words for you later. In the end the quarians will have a harder time retaking Rannoch. You can recruit them (after finishing the Rannoch quest-line) but you'll have fewer war assets in the end. Your conscience remains intact though.

 

Doing this mission for the Alliance or Council necessitates Shepard being sent here during the mid-point of the war for Rannoch. He finds the Reaper forces have pushed very far into the facility and caused severe damage. The mission will thus have more enemies to fight through and Overlord itself will be somewhat less effective whatever you choice Shepard makes.