A recap of...
Mass Effect 3
The Reapers invade and quickly overwhelm Earth. After being reinstated by Anderson, who stays behind to rally resistance, Shepard is ordered to Mars by Hackett. There, Shepard learns of a Prothean superweapon capable of destroying the Reapers, and recovers its schematics from the Illusive Man, who reveals Cerberus' desire to control the Reapers instead. With schematics in hand, the Alliance begins construction on the device, dubbed the "Crucible", while Shepard is ordered to recruit support from other species across the galaxy.
Shepard begins by rescuing the turian primarch from Menae, a moon orbiting the turian homeworld, Palaven. The primarch pledges turian support to Shepard only if the krogan help defend Palaven, but the krogan leader refuses to help unless the genophage is cured. Shepard and the krogan leader travel to the salarian homeworld, Sur'Kesh, where they rendezvous with a salarian scientist who formulates a cure from Eve, a fertile krogan female, and plans to disperse it using a tower called the "Shroud" on the krogan homeworld, Tuchanka. Before landing on Tuchanka, Shepard is contacted by the leader of the salarian government, who reveals that the Shroud has been sabotaged to prevent the dispersal of a cure, and offers her government's support only if the sabotage is left intact. Shepard must ultimately decide whether to allow the cure to proceed, in which case the salarian scientist sacrifices himself to deploy a counter-measure, resulting in a pledge of support from the krogan. Alternatively, Shepard may deceive the krogan into thinking that the genophage has been cured, thereby earning both krogan and salarian support.
Following the events on Tuchanka and a failed coup by Cerberus to take over the Citadel, the quarians offer their support to the Alliance if Shepard helps them reclaim their homeworld, Rannoch, from the geth. Shepard boards a geth dreadnought, rescues a captive geth ally, and disables the Reaper control signal over the geth. Shepard then locates and destroys a Reaper base on Rannoch, which gives the quarians an opportunity to attack the vulnerable geth. However, the allied geth unit reveals that it intends to sacrifice itself in order to upgrade the geth using Reaper technology, which empowers the geth to defeat the quarians and enable them to achieve true sentience and free will. Shepard either supports one faction by allowing them to exterminate the other, or negotiates a ceasefire to gain support from both sides.
Shepard is subsequently summoned to the Citadel by the asari councilor. She reveals that there is a hidden Prothean artifact on the asari homeworld, Thessia, which may help Shepard identify the "Catalyst", an essential component for completing the Crucible. There, Shepard discovers a Prothean VI called "Vendetta", but Kai Leng arrives and steals it as Thessia falls to the Reapers. Desperate to reclaim Vendetta, Shepard's crew follow Leng to the Sanctuary facility on the human colony world Horizon, where Cerberus has been secretly researching Reaper-control technology. Shepard obtains a tracking device that leads to the Illusive Man's headquarters, and initiates an all-out assault on the base with the Alliance. Shepard reaches the central base, kills Leng, and learns from Vendetta that the Catalyst is the Citadel itself, which the Reapers have captured after successfully indoctrinating the Illusive Man, who abandoned the station prior to the assault.
The Alliance and its allies launch an all-out assault on the Reapers in a last-ditch effort to retake Earth. Shepard and Anderson eventually enter the Citadel through a Reaper transportation beam, where they find the Illusive Man; only Shepard survives the ensuing confrontation. Shepard attempts to activate the Crucible, but is instead lifted to the Citadel's pinnacle, and meets a childlike AI that declares itself to be the Catalyst. The Catalyst reveals that it originally created the Reapers to prevent synthetic life from destroying organic life by periodically culling civilizations that had grown advanced enough to develop synthetic life. Having conceded defeat to Shepard, it presents up to three options for activating the Crucible: destroy all synthetic life in the galaxy; control the Reapers by uploading Shepard's consciousness to become the new Catalyst; or synthesize all life into organic-synthetic hybrids to render the Reapers obsolete. The ultimate fates of Shepard, the Normandy crew, Earth, and the rest of the galaxy depend on the player's choice in dealing with the Catalyst as well as their final EMS score.
The Mass Effect trilogy is set within the Milky Way galaxy during the 22nd century, where interstellar travel is possible through the use of mass transit devices called mass relays, a technology believed to have been built by an extinct alien race known as the Protheans. A conglomerate body of governments known as the Citadel Council controls a large percentage of the galaxy and is responsible for maintaining law and order among races of the galactic community. Races that belong to the Citadel Council include humans, asari, salarians and turians. Other alien races include the warlike reptilian krogan, the nomadic environmental suited quarians, and their wayward creations, a race of networked artificial intelligences known as the geth.
Mass Effect 3 begins in 2186, six months after the events of Mass Effect 2. The galactic community lives in fear of an invasion by Reapers, a highly advanced machine race of synthetic-organic starships that are believed to eradicate all organic civilization every 50,000 years. Meanwhile, the krogan face extinction because of the genophage, a genetic mutation developed by the salarians and deployed by the turians as a bioweapon to contain the krogan; the quarians prepare to retake their homeworld from the geth; and the human supremacist terrorist organization Cerberus is regrouping after a temporary alliance with Commander Shepard to defeat the Collectors, indoctrinated and genetically modified remnants of the Prothean race who were abducting human colonies. Shepard has been relieved of duty and is confined on Earth, awaiting court-martial by the Systems Alliance.
Shepard begins by rescuing the turian primarch from Menae, a moon orbiting the turian homeworld, Palaven. The primarch pledges turian support to Shepard only if the krogan help defend Palaven, but the krogan leader refuses to help unless the genophage is cured. Shepard and the krogan leader travel to the salarian homeworld, Sur'Kesh, where they rendezvous with a salarian scientist who formulates a cure from Eve, a fertile krogan female, and plans to disperse it using a tower called the "Shroud" on the krogan homeworld, Tuchanka. Before landing on Tuchanka, Shepard is contacted by the leader of the salarian government, who reveals that the Shroud has been sabotaged to prevent the dispersal of a cure, and offers her government's support only if the sabotage is left intact. Shepard must ultimately decide whether to allow the cure to proceed, in which case the salarian scientist sacrifices himself to deploy a counter-measure, resulting in a pledge of support from the krogan. Alternatively, Shepard may deceive the krogan into thinking that the genophage has been cured, thereby earning both krogan and salarian support.
Following the events on Tuchanka and a failed coup by Cerberus to take over the Citadel, the quarians offer their support to the Alliance if Shepard helps them reclaim their homeworld, Rannoch, from the geth. Shepard boards a geth dreadnought, rescues a captive geth ally, and disables the Reaper control signal over the geth. Shepard then locates and destroys a Reaper base on Rannoch, which gives the quarians an opportunity to attack the vulnerable geth. However, the allied geth unit reveals that it intends to sacrifice itself in order to upgrade the geth using Reaper technology, which empowers the geth to defeat the quarians and enable them to achieve true sentience and free will. Shepard either supports one faction by allowing them to exterminate the other, or negotiates a ceasefire to gain support from both sides.
Shepard is subsequently summoned to the Citadel by the asari councilor. She reveals that there is a hidden Prothean artifact on the asari homeworld, Thessia, which may help Shepard identify the "Catalyst", an essential component for completing the Crucible. There, Shepard discovers a Prothean VI called "Vendetta", but Kai Leng arrives and steals it as Thessia falls to the Reapers. Desperate to reclaim Vendetta, Shepard's crew follow Leng to the Sanctuary facility on the human colony world Horizon, where Cerberus has been secretly researching Reaper-control technology. Shepard obtains a tracking device that leads to the Illusive Man's headquarters, and initiates an all-out assault on the base with the Alliance. Shepard reaches the central base, kills Leng, and learns from Vendetta that the Catalyst is the Citadel itself, which the Reapers have captured after successfully indoctrinating the Illusive Man, who abandoned the station prior to the assault.
The Alliance and its allies launch an all-out assault on the Reapers in a last-ditch effort to retake Earth. Shepard and Anderson eventually enter the Citadel through a Reaper transportation beam, where they find the Illusive Man; only Shepard survives the ensuing confrontation. Shepard attempts to activate the Crucible, but is instead lifted to the Citadel's pinnacle, and meets a childlike AI that declares itself to be the Catalyst. The Catalyst reveals that it originally created the Reapers to prevent synthetic life from destroying organic life by periodically culling civilizations that had grown advanced enough to develop synthetic life. Having conceded defeat to Shepard, it presents up to three options for activating the Crucible: destroy all synthetic life in the galaxy; control the Reapers by uploading Shepard's consciousness to become the new Catalyst; or synthesize all life into organic-synthetic hybrids to render the Reapers obsolete. The ultimate fates of Shepard, the Normandy crew, Earth, and the rest of the galaxy depend on the player's choice in dealing with the Catalyst as well as their final EMS score.
The Mass Effect trilogy is set within the Milky Way galaxy during the 22nd century, where interstellar travel is possible through the use of mass transit devices called mass relays, a technology believed to have been built by an extinct alien race known as the Protheans. A conglomerate body of governments known as the Citadel Council controls a large percentage of the galaxy and is responsible for maintaining law and order among races of the galactic community. Races that belong to the Citadel Council include humans, asari, salarians and turians. Other alien races include the warlike reptilian krogan, the nomadic environmental suited quarians, and their wayward creations, a race of networked artificial intelligences known as the geth.
Mass Effect 3 begins in 2186, six months after the events of Mass Effect 2. The galactic community lives in fear of an invasion by Reapers, a highly advanced machine race of synthetic-organic starships that are believed to eradicate all organic civilization every 50,000 years. Meanwhile, the krogan face extinction because of the genophage, a genetic mutation developed by the salarians and deployed by the turians as a bioweapon to contain the krogan; the quarians prepare to retake their homeworld from the geth; and the human supremacist terrorist organization Cerberus is regrouping after a temporary alliance with Commander Shepard to defeat the Collectors, indoctrinated and genetically modified remnants of the Prothean race who were abducting human colonies. Shepard has been relieved of duty and is confined on Earth, awaiting court-martial by the Systems Alliance.
