Banana Scoop

Mass Effect has significantly changed my life when it comes to gaming.  I used to not be such a big video game guy as it took me nearly 5 years to finally get a PS3 after it was released.  Mass Effect 2 was among the first game I got.  While it was difficult to get into, not playing Mass Effect 1 and buying it used so I couldn’t control decisions from the first game,  I managed to eventually persevere through it and get all the correct DLC to get the way I wanted.  By the time Mass Effect 3 came out, I spent 30 hours gaining everyone’s loyalty and etc., I had successfully gotten a fairly perfect Paragon mode with all my crew members.  I spent another 30 hours playing through Mass Effect 3 and my Paragon Male Shepherd chose the synthesis route and I thought I was done and satisfied.

It was interesting that I never truly considered the Renegade route.  Even more astonishing that I never remotely considered a female Shepherd.  And after going through some forums I read some very interesting quotes regarding my decisions: “Anyone who has never played a Female Shepherd should be considered sexist” and “Playing through renegade is a completely different side to the Mass Effect universe”.  I’ve taken these statements into account and decided to knock out two birds with one stone.  So here is my journey as Renegade FemShep.

Surprisingly enough, this is very close to what my FemShep looks like. I made sure I fixed her face from all the Renegation.

So here’s the rundown on what exactly Paragon/Renegade is for the non-Mass Effect knowers.  The Paragon/Renegade options are approaches to the game.  The Paragon option is the hero option.  You do the right thing, you save anyone you can, and you’ll even show mercy to your enemies.  This was the ultimate hero.  I personally believe this is the way the game should be played the first time. The most reasonable Shepherd is this one and I think it appeals to goodness in all of us.  This is how I played the first time.  Now the Renegade option is to be the ultimate space bad ass.  You don’t give a damn about people in general.  You’re a smart ass and kind of a dick, even when it come to talking to your friends.  I used to be afraid of this option path because I wasn’t this way in real life and I didn’t like how my Shepherd would talk to people.

So I started my journey as Renegade Shepherd.  My first Renegade dialogue occurred when the Normandy was under attack: “Get out now, I’ll pull Joker’s crippled ass outta here!”  All I could do was smile.  I immediately knew I was gonna have a blast doing this.  And soon after, I was badassing my way across he universe.  I let innocent men die.  I told my own soldiers to shape up when they did nothing wrong.  I pretty much stuck my middle finger up to the world.  I was having a blast being a smart ass and not caring what happened to the world.

Go fck yourself.

The whole female aspect wasn’t as dramatic.  There are points where he clearly becomes she and there are some noticeable wardrobe changes as well as asset additions [bumps in the breast plate armor around the breast area only means one thing].  The biggest change is probably the romance options available to you.  For my Mass Effect 1 romance, I chose Kaiden but I felt as though he needed to die, so I left him in Virmire to die to add some color to my painful past that made me such a cold and heartless person.  In Mass Effect 2, I’ve romanced Thane because I felt my Shepherd was attracted to his strict philosophy that was so contradictory to mine that nothing but attraction stemmed from him.  So I fell in love with a dead man and had no qualms with it.

There was one problem though.  The problem was my humanity.  There are key scenes where I simply had to go Paragon.  I was sometimes too much of a dick that even I had to frown.  Comforting Tali.  Talking with my beloved Thane [I’m not gay for falling in love with a man, it’s only my character].  There were even some decisions that ran according to the Renegade path that had me killing my own crewmates [WREX no!!!].  I couldn’t do it.  I was okay with only being mean to them, but letting them die?!?  So I felt contradictory when it came to my occasional paragon options.  So it became my challenge to craft a reasonable Renegade FemShep mentality.  In order to compensate for this I came up with this mentality: I only allowed to choose Renegade for the most paramount decisions when it came to saving my crew member’s lives.  Since then I’ve kept as much as I could to be Renegade.  And it’s still providing a just as fun experience.  I highly recommend you all to try it if you haven’t already done so.