The "Mass Effect 3" Story [2] Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vancouver

Commander Shepard was under house arrest in Vancouver at the beginning of "Mass Effect 3". Many landmarks from Vancouver, such as Canada Place, the inlets, and mountain ranges in the background, were modeled after actual landmarks.

London was the city in which the final push against the Reapers took place at the end of "Mass Effect 3". Hong Kong was another city considered for the starting point of "Mass Effect 3", and Edmonton was the location of BioWare's main studio that developed the "Mass Effect" franchise.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/gaming/gaming-news/futuristic-vancouver-stars-in-mass-effect-3/article551373/comments/

Answer: Cerberus

Cerberus was a former Systems Alliance black ops unit that went rogue. They had a very strong pro-human streak, wanting to secure human dominance in the galaxy. While Cerberus did not explicitly hate non-humans, many racist and bigoted humans were welcomed by the group. Cerberus was not above killing humans, including those in its employ. Dr. Brynn Cole, a former Cerberus scientist, was working on part of a project. After a scientist had completed his or her portion of the project, that scientists would suddenly disappear or show up dead. Dr. Cole fled before she met the same fate. Cerberus did not suffer traitors or deserters well, either.

In "Mass Effect", Cerberus was a minor enemy that appeared in a few optional assignments. In "Mass Effect 2", Cerberus rebuilt Shepard after the rest of the galaxy thought that the Commander had died. They made common cause with the Commander against the Reapers. In "Mass Effect 3", while Shepard and the Systems Alliance were working to destroy the Reapers, Cerberus wanted to take control of them, putting the two sides at odds.

Cerberus infiltrated and attacked the Prothean dig site on Mars, even killing the human scientists, to prevent the Alliance from getting the plans for the Crucible.

Answer: Adrien Victus

Shepard went to Menae to get Fedorian, the turian Primarch, for a war summit. Shepard soon learned that the Primarch was dead, though. The turian government was dominated by a military ranking system that had a very clear line of succession. Shepard found out that the new turian Primarch was General Adrien Victus, who was at a different outpost on Menae. Shepard had to travel through no-man's land and convince the General to leave his troops and lead the turian war effort.

Saren Arterius was the main antagonist in "Mass Effect". Executor Venari Pallin was the head of Citadel Security in "Mass Effect". Solana Vakarian was Garrus' sister. The only reference to her was found in the Shadow Broker's files in the "Mass Effect 2" downloadable content "Lair of the Shadow Broker".

Answer: A cure for the genophage.

A long-standing point of disagreement that has spanned the "Mass Effect" trilogy was the genophage.

During the Rachni Wars, the Citadel species were losing. The salarians found the krogan, a very tough species that could fight very well in extremely harsh conditions. The krogan were uplifted and directed at the Rachni. The Citadel species won the war, and the krogan were thanked and given an embassy. The krogan's aggressive nature and high birth rate led to unchecked krogan expansion, which eventually touched colonies already settled by other Citadel races. This became the krogan rebellions. Around the time of the krogan rebellions, the turians achieved space flight, and joined the galactic community. Their strong military was used to slow to krogan advance, but even the turians started to lose ground. The salarians developed a genetic modifier for the krogan, called the genophage. The genophage greatly reduced the krogan birth rate to "manageable levels". The turians unleashed the genophage, infecting every krogan.

Even over a millennium later, the krogan still harbored a deep resentment towards the turians and salarians. The krogan offered to help the turians against the Reapers in exchange for a cure.

Answer: With a thresher maw.

The krogan had a puberty ritual that they called the Rite of Passage. Part of the ritual was to survive a thresher maw attack for a given amount of time, or to kill it. In order to summon a thresher maw, large structures called keystones were used.

The Reaper on Tuchanka was guarding the Shroud facility. The Shroud facility was placed in Kalros' territory to deter unwanted visitors. Kalros was the "Mother of all Threshers", and the largest thresher maw known. Incidentally, two large keystones used for summoning her were nearby. Shepard activated both keystones to summon Kalros, who then fought the Reaper, crushing it and burying it.

The Normandy used its cannons in "Mass Effect" to deliver the killing blow to the Reaper Sovereign. The Reaper supporting the geth was destroyed by a combined orbital bombardment from the quarian fleet. In a side-mission, Cerberus attempted to take control of some planetary defense cannons on Tuchanka. Shepard stopped them and used the cannons on the orbiting Cerberus cruiser. The defense cannon base was the "Mass Effect 3" multiplayer map Firebase: Giant.

Answer: Donnel Udina, the human councilor

Donnel Udina was the human ambassador in "Mass Effect" and was always striving for greater human influence in galactic politics. Udina often would argue with the Citadel Council, and make demands that he had no authority to make. After the events of "Mass Effect", humanity had a seat on the Citadel Council. In "Mass Effect 3", that seat was filled by Udina.

Udina was originally very helpful in "Mass Effect 3", assisting Shepard. However, he became irritated when the other councilors refused to help him retake Earth from the Reapers, and contacted Cerberus. He wanted Cerberus to arrest the Council so he could order Citadel forces to attempt to retake Earth. Cerberus took a more extreme approach, and started killing many innocent Citadel citizens, both human and non-human. Shepard arrived and stopped the coup, and Udina was killed in the process.

Captain Bailey was the head of Citadel Security, and helped Shepard land on the Citadel. He later provided intel while Shepard was on the move. Dr. Eva Coré was the Cerberus agent who infiltrated the Mars facility, and opened the doors for Cerberus troops there. She turned out to be an AI, and EDI later took Dr. Coré's body for her own. Henry Lawson ran a false refugee camp on Horizon, and was studying Reaper indoctrination for the Illusive Man, using refugees as test subjects.

Answer: To retake their homeworld, Rannoch.

The quarians created the geth 300 years before the events in "Mass Effect 3". After discovering that they had accidentally created an artificial intelligence (AI), which was illegal, they attempted to destroy the geth. The geth fought back in self-defense, and drove the quarians from their homeworld, Rannoch. The geth took up stewardship of Rannoch, and began repairing it. The quarians began their collective lives onboard the Migrant Flet, which became their new home.

Between "Mass Effect 2" and "Mass Effect 3", the quarians armed all of the ships in their fleet, and launched an offensive to retake their homeworld. The quarians had the element of surprise, and quickly destroyed many geth ships and installations. In their desperation, the geth turned to the Reapers for help. The Reapers augmented the geth code, and the tide of the conflict turned, but the geth had lost their freewill that they cherished.

Shepard had to free the geth from Reaper control, and then had to help resolve the quarian-geth conflict.

Answer: Horizon

Shepard's main focus in "Mass Effect 3" was destroying the Reapers, but Cerberus kept hampering the Commander's progress. When Kai Leng managed to steal a Prothean VI from Shepard on Thessia, Shepard became fed up enough to change focus to Cerberus. Traynor, the Normandy's communications expert, managed to track Kai Leng to Horizon, tipping off the crew about a possible Cerberus operation.

Shepard found out that the refugee camp on Horizon was actually a secret Cerberus facility being run by Henry Lawson, Miranda's father. Henry was researching Reaper indoctrination, using the refugees as test subjects. He was trying to figure out how to harness the control, and reverse it, which would let Cerberus take control of the Reapers and secure human dominance in the galaxy.

Eden Prime was a human colony, and the first planet Shepard set foot on in "Mass Effect". It was where a Prothean beacon was found, which prompted Saren to attack the colony with his geth army. Terra Nova was also a human colony. In the "Mass Effect" downloadable content "Bring Down the Sky", a group of batarian terrorists attempted to send an asteroid into the planet, which Shepard stopped. Chronos Station was the Illusive Man's hidden base, where he resided during "Mass Effect 2". Just before attacking Earth, Shepard and the Systems Alliance attacked Chronos Station to crush Cerberus once and for all.

Answer: Palaven, the turian homeworld

The only homeworld that Shepard got to visit before "Mass Effect 3" was Tuchanka, the krogan homeworld. Shepard did not even get to go to Earth before "Mass Effect 3", although Shepard could travel to Earth's moon in "Mass Effect"

This was a bit of a tricky question. Shepard was told to go to Palaven to retrieve the turian Primarch, but Shepard actually went to Menae, Palaven's moon.

Shepard first went to Sur'kesh to recover the female krogan, Eve, from a salarian base. Later, when resolving the quarian-geth situation, Shepard landed on Rannoch to destroy a geth base (as well as a few optional assignments). After Rannoch, Shepard was told by the asari councilor to investigate the Temple of Athame on Thessia.

Answer: A Marauder

The first two games in the "Mass Effect" series both had memorable, unique, and relatively difficult final boss fights. Marauders, on the other hand, were a common Reaper enemy seen as early as Manae. Most players did not even realize that they had killed their last enemy of the series, because a long sequence of dialogue and choices followed right after.

When fans realized that the last enemy in the entire "Mass Effect" trilogy was a mere Marauder, the Marauder Shields meme appeared. Marauder Shields, the last enemy of "Mass Effect 3", got its name because when targeting an enemy, its type and health/defenses are displayed. In the case of the Marauder, "Marauder" was displayed, followed by a shields bar with the word "Shields" imposed on top.

Marauder Shields waits for Commander Shepard to get close to the Conduit that connects Earth to the Citadel. At the last moment, Marauder Shields steps from cover and shoots the Commander, but not fatally. Shepard then easily dispatches Marauder Shields.

When "Mass Effect 3" first came out, there was a very large negative reaction to the ending. The Marauder Shields meme focused on a single Marauder that was waiting for the entire game for his chance to kill Commander Shepard, and save Shepard from the awful ending. Ultimately, Marauder Shields' efforts failed, which led to many fans mourning his passing, and praising him as a hero.