Mass Effect Reveals Players Are More Alike Than You'd Think
One of the well-known highlights of the "Mass Effect" series is how it enables players to make a full swathe of choices that will dictate the rest of how the space opera goes, thanks to the series' innovative save file transfer system. Some decisions you make in the first "Mass Effect" will be seen in "Mass Effect 2," which translate to "Mass Effect 3." But even given the numerous decisions one can make throughout their time playing "Mass Effect," it turns out that "Mass Effect" players are all pretty alike when the time comes to choose any given path.
A recent tweet from the official "Mass Effect" Twitter account included a graphic demonstrating the decisions made by players throughout "Mass Effect: Legendary Edition." Specifically, the graphic shows the pivotal moments throughout the "Mass Effect" series and which percentages of players decided to go one route versus another.
For example, right from the get-go, players are asked to choose whether they want to play as the male or female version of lead protagonist Commander Shepard. A whopping 68% of players chose to go with the male iteration, whereas 32% reportedly went with the female iteration. Meanwhile, more than half of players chose for their Shepard to hail from Earth.
In terms of military specialization (essentially the class type in the "Mass Effect" universe), 40% of players went the Soldier route, which is more focused on gunning down enemies than relying heavily on telekinetic abilities, as is the case in some other specializations.
Players also tended to agree pretty heavily on certain story beats, as you'll soon see. Spoilers ahead for the original "Mass Effect" trilogy.
Mass Effect players had similar story choices
There were a few decisions where players achieved near-unanimity. One example involves Wrex's survival on in the mission "Vermire: Wrex and the Genophage." During a conflict between korgan mercenary Wrex and Turian known as Saren, players can either resolve the situation by killing Wrex or negotiating peace. Fortunately for Wrex, 94% of players were able to de-escalate the situation, whereas 6% decided to see Wrex off.
Similarly, in the first "Mass Effect," players have the opportunity to save or kill the Rachni Queen. 93% of players favored the former route, with a small minority of players choosing to kill off the Rachni Queen.
Finally, players reached vast consensus when it came to two other decisions, namely the Genophage's cure and Tali's tentative exile. While players had the opportunity to keep the krogan genocide in effect and ensure Tali's exile from the quarians, in both cases, 96% of players decided to cure the Genophage and pardon Tali, where 4% of players decided to allow the biological attack to continue as planned and exile Tali.
The graphic does offer some more interesting insight as well, including who survives the first "Mass Effect" and who lives through the final mission in "Mass Effect 2." The graphic doesn't give any info about the romance options in the "Mass Effect" games — a very important element of the game — but it still offers some amusing insight into player behavior in the series.