Mass Effect 2’s Suicide Mission isn’t just one of the sci-fi series' most memorable moments; it’s also one of the most cinematic RPG missions of the last decade and one of BioWare’s crowning achievements. The music, the scale of the set pieces, and the potential for every single squad member (and even Shepard themselves) to die on the mission elevated the game’s ending to a legendary status. As such, the moment players flew through the Omega Relay to take on the Collectors is something that sticks with fans over ten years later.
Mass Effecthas tried and failed to recapture that moment and the broader success ofMass Effect 2several times.Mass Effect 3, though successful, had an infamously simple ending that had far fewer possible variations than the game that preceded it.Mass Effect: Andromeda, which introduced a new protagonist and took players to a distant galaxy many centuries after the original trilogy, struggled to recapture the magic of Shepard’s story. For Mass Effect 4to revive the series’ success, BioWare needs to understand what made the Suicide Mission such a great moment, but also some of the challenges it posed the franchise going forward.
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Why Mass Effect 2’s Suicide Mission Is So Special
Mass Effect 2’s Suicide Mission was incredibly immersive. It presented players with the possibility that literally any of their companions could die. Not only that, but withthe Normandy’s other crewmembers captured before the final mission, it put the lives of the vast majority of the characters players had spent the game getting to know on the line.
The Suicide Mission – travelling through the Omega Relay – was set up right at the start of the game, first introduced by theIllusive Manafter Shepard’s resurrection at the hands of Cerberus.Mass Effect 2is full of great stories and character arcs, but the shadow of the Suicide Mission hangs over the entire plot to brilliant effect. Everything becomes about preparation for that final push, and as the mission’s name suggests, no amount of preparation ensures success.
On a first playthrough, the Suicide Mission is truly epic. It’s the tense realization of every story thread so far and has the potential to cut the lives of beloved characters like Tali, Mordin, andGarrus Vakariansuddenly short. Not only that, but if any companion is killed, it’s done as part of a short cutscene. If Mordin dies, for example, he’s shot through while helping close the doors on the approaching collector forces. These moments manage to feel simultaneously cinematic and brutally blunt – there are no grand final stands for these characters, but the game manages to pull off their demises in a way that makes their sacrifice feel important.
Cause And Effect In Mass Effect 2
The Suicide Mission creates the sense that all of the player’s actions so far have been important, that there are dozens of different ways the final mission could have played out if they’d just chosen that dialogue option there, gone down another path earlier in the game, or made a better split-second decision on the mission itself. The game really does imbue the player with a great sense of responsibility for their team – if they let their crew get captured but then fly around completing side missions before assaulting the Omega Relay, they’re treated to a grizzly scene whereYeoman Kelly Chambersis dissolved in a Collector Pod thanks to their dallying.
There are so many different factors that can effect whether the player’s companion dies, and BioWare does a great job making sure that gaining companion loyalty is by no means a guarantee of their survival. Instead, many of the checks the player has to pass make total causal sense in-universe. If the player didn’t upgradethe Normandy’s shieldsbefore the mission, one of their companions will die. Later on, the same is true of the cannon upgrade.
Players have to get to know their companions as characters, not just mechanics. When choosing the specialists for different tasks, there are only a handful who are truly up to the job. Only Legion, Tali, orKasumican survive as the vent specialist, and only if their loyalty has been gained.
Similarly, only a loyal Garrus, Jacob, orMiranda Lawsonwill find success as the leader of the fireteam, a decision players have to make in the heat of the moment. If either decision is made poorly, a companion will die, but to any player who has been truly focused on these character’s personalities, the right choices make total sense. There are many more choices to be made like this, and all of them rely on the player make logical in-character decisions rather than simply having been a completionist up until the Suicide Mission.
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Lessons To Be Learned From Mass Effect 2’s Suicide Mission
The Suicide Mission is brilliant, but it also serves as a warning. The great many possible outcomes leftMass Effect 3struggling to truly tell a unique story for each possibility. Mordin is one of the more likely characters to die inMass Effect 2, for example, but if he does he is replaced by a far less interesting Salarian counterpart in the next game and players miss out on one ofME3’s best moments: Mordin’s heroic sacrifice curing the genophage.
Mass Effect 3ended up being an underwhelming ending to the original trilogy in the eyes of many players, or at least a sequel which was unable to truly reflect all of the player’s minute choices in the same way asMass Effect 2’s Suicide Mission. The lesson, perhaps, is thatBioWaretells its most effective stories when it keeps them self-contained, and that sprawling RPG series with no definite end in sight undermine the studio’s ability to tell stories where the player’s actions truly feel like they matter.
WhetherMass Effect 4will be a standalone story or the start of a new multi-game arc has yet to be revealed, but if BioWare wants to recapture the success ofMass Effect 2, the studio has two main choices. It could focus on telling a self-contained story that reflects more of the player’s choices, or it could attempt to tell a story spanning multiple games where the sequels really do vary greatly depending on past choices. The former seems far more achievable, but with BioWare relying onMass Effect’s future to move beyond recent disappointments, less likely than ever.
Mass Effect: Legendary Editionis available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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