The Biggest Choice You’ll Never Make

The following is a reprint from Unwinnable Weekly Issue Twenty-Seven. If you enjoy what you read, please consider purchasing the issue or subscribing. ——— The modern BioWare phenomenon begins with a choice. Part of the way through the first Mass Effect game (released in 2007), you and your party land on a planet called Virmire and you’re tossed into a big action sequence. At its climax, two of your party members leave to do two different things, something goes wrong and you have a choice: save Kaiden, or save Ashley? One lives. One dies. That’s not how big-budget games were supposed to

Why Garrus is the Real Hero of Mass Effect

Garrus Vakarian is the Mass Effect series. All right, that’s a strong statement, and obviously not literal. So to put it another way: more than any single component of Mass Effect, Garrus embodies the tone, theme and characterization of the series. Garrus is one of two characters who’s a full party member in all three Mass Effect games, alongside Tali. (Unless, of course, you let him die in Mass Effect 2 and import that save into Mass Effect 3. It’s also apparently possible to reject him if you time things right in Mass Effect 1, but I’ve never even seen