Mass Effect, I personally think Paragon Shepard has the more solid story than Renegade.

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I don't know, I have not played a full renegade Shepard but from the videos I have seen of it on Youtube I just think Pure Paragon Shepard has the more Well thought-out, consistant and solid story and dialoge conversations than Renegade Shepard.

Like in the case of Dialoge Renegade Shepard is supposed to but evil and smartass asshole. And yet it feels weird when he ask questions like "What is X and Who is Y?" all calmly and normal?

And don't get me started on certain events. Like in Mass Effect 1 the Renegade thing to do in the end of it is to let the Council die and Humanity forcefully assumed power of the entire Galaxy practically.

And yet in the sequals that radical change barely influance anything especially Mass Effect 3.

I mean mabye Paragon did not also make any radically changes but it still felt more consistant like the Council being around in Mass Effect 3 made more sense to the story.

This is just a few nitpicks, I maybe talking out of my ass so I like some info on this because again I never played a full Renegade Shepard. But so far I just have the impression that being Renegade Shepard makes for a widely frustrating and inconsistant story.

 

[Zhukov]

I never did manage to play as a renegade. Tried it once and quickly lost interest.

I'd pick the renegade choices every now and again, but doing it consistently just seemed weird. A lot of them result in Shepard just being rude for no reason or being a dick to get something done when you can accomplish the exact same thing like a reasonable person.

I dunno, maybe it's supposed to cater to people whose power fantasy is to be a dick without repercussions.

I have no problem with the paragon/renegade thing as a roleplay element, but as a mechanic it never really worked.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Well seeings how full Renegade Shepard doesn't live through the Collector's assault, yeah I assume so.
Plus he's just an unreasonable dick who responds to every situation with violence, even normal every day conversation. He's basically a Chaos Marine.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I never did manage to play as a renegade. Tried it once and quickly lost interest.

I'd pick the renegade choices every now and again, but doing it consistently just seemed weird. A lot of them result in Shepard just being rude for no reason or being a dick to get something done when you can accomplish the exact same thing like a reasonable person.

I dunno, maybe it's supposed to cater to people whose power fantasy is to be a dick without repercussions.

And that's what makes it even more frustrating and especially considering doing the good thing, right thing, feels more rewarding in the long run.

I mean in the case of Mass Effect 3 where you cure the Krogan of the Genophage at last, it like a more compelling resolution and had the better outcome when you see Wrex on Earth.

I mean I just think out of all of Bioware's games Mass Effect's Evil story path is not as good compared to Dragon Age or KOTOR mostly because there ARE dire concequences for being evil.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Well seeings how full Renegade Shepard doesn't live through the Collector's assault, yeah I assume so.
Plus he's just an unreasonable dick who responds to every situation with violence, even normal every day conversation. He's basically a Chaos Marine.

Especially his racism.

I mean he is blatently bigotted to Turians and yes Humans and Turians have history but jeez why is people like Nihlhus and Garrus even still with this guy? Especially the idea of Renegade Female Shepard Romacing Garrus

And don't get me started on that part of Mass Effect 2, being an evil dick is not a surefire way to inspire fear and obidence let alone loyalty. I mean realistiaclly most of the people you recruited would just leave or rather die than be with Renegade Shepard.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Well seeings how full Renegade Shepard doesn't live through the Collector's assault, yeah I assume so.
Plus he's just an unreasonable dick who responds to every situation with violence, even normal every day conversation. He's basically a Chaos Marine.

Especially his racism.

I mean he is blatently bigotted to Turians and yes Humans and Turians have history but jeez why is people like Nihlhus and Garrus even still with this guy? Especially the idea of Renegade Female Shepard Romacing Garrus

And don't get me started on that part of Mass Effect 2, being an evil dick is not a surefire way to inspire fear and obidence let alone loyalty. I mean realistically most of the people you recruited would just leave or rather die than be with Renegade Shepard.

Well that's kinda' the crux of the issue, no? Through fear doesn't work. One by one your party dies because they're not looking out for one another, then in the end Shepard dies. Fear and intimidation literally gets the entire party killed.
Through loyalty though. That's how you get people out alive.

And you know you're a racists when even Cerberus, the literal racist black ops group, thinks you're too racist.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Well seeings how full Renegade Shepard doesn't live through the Collector's assault, yeah I assume so.
Plus he's just an unreasonable dick who responds to every situation with violence, even normal every day conversation. He's basically a Chaos Marine.

Especially his racism.

I mean he is blatently bigotted to Turians and yes Humans and Turians have history but jeez why is people like Nihlhus and Garrus even still with this guy? Especially the idea of Renegade Female Shepard Romacing Garrus

And don't get me started on that part of Mass Effect 2, being an evil dick is not a surefire way to inspire fear and obidence let alone loyalty. I mean realistically most of the people you recruited would just leave or rather die than be with Renegade Shepard.

Well that's kinda' the crux of the issue, no? Through fear doesn't work. One by one your party dies because they're not looking out for one another, then in the end Shepard dies. Fear and intimidation literally gets the entire party killed.
Through loyalty though. That's how you get people out alive.

And you know you're a racists when even Cerberus, the literal racist black ops group, thinks you're too racist.

So far I truly think that one true canon playthrough is the Paragon path, it certainly feels like the better writen story and better written character interactions, I mean there are some really cheesy and badly delivered lines in the Renegade Path

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE A HERO, HEROES DON'T DO THINGS LIKE THIS, I WISH I NEVER MET YOU"

-Conrad Verner

 

[CaitSeith]

Renegade Shepard isn't fully evil. Renegade is chaotic, breaks the rules and does anything to get the job done, no matter the consequences and without showing mercy. So yeah, a jerk and a bully; but not evil. Renegade Shephard fits perfectly in Mass Effect 2, as Cerberus is portrayed like that. Something common in the Renegade interrupts is how frequently are to get the upper hand in battle (like shooting at the villain at mid of his evil monologue).

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I prefer being a blend. 80% Paragon, 20% Renegade.

My shep was a reformed renegade. I started off with the Ruthless background, and treated that as his personal shame that shook him out of his ways and made him start being more self-sacrificing.

So I did mostly good things and continually has Shep sacrifice his own happiness and safety (by the end I was playing him as a near-suicidal vanguard), but if I had a chance to get an advantage over an enemy who turned their back on me, I'd take it. I also tolerated no BS. What's that, a Krogan dude is disrespecting me? HEADBUTT. Salarian is upset that I'm trying to end the genophage? Called him out on it, the reapers are way more important to stop right now. Despite it all, Quarian commander is trying to genocide the geth who are helpless? Told the guy I'd let the geth upgrade, so that if he continued the attack he's slaughter his own entire race (It worked, he backed off, Yessssss!).

I found this particularly interesting to play.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Renegade Shepard isn't fully evil. Renegade is chaotic, breaks the rules and does anything to get the job done, no matter the consequences and without showing mercy. So yeah, a jerk and a bully; but not evil. Renegade Shephard fits perfectly in Mass Effect 2, as Cerberus is portrayed like that. Something common in the Renegade interrupts is how frequently are to get the upper hand in battle (like shooting at the villain at mid of his evil monologue).

Yet I still find being Paragon in Mass Effect 2 to be more interesting.

Also how is Renegade Shepard now at odds with the Illusive Man in Mass Effect 3 since the Renegade Ending in Mass Effect 2 both him and the Illusive Man still appear to be on the same side?

 

[CaitSeith]

Renegade Shepard isn't fully evil. Renegade is chaotic, breaks the rules and does anything to get the job done, no matter the consequences and without showing mercy. So yeah, a jerk and a bully; but not evil. Renegade Shephard fits perfectly in Mass Effect 2, as Cerberus is portrayed like that. Something common in the Renegade interrupts is how frequently are to get the upper hand in battle (like shooting at the villain at mid of his evil monologue).

Yet I still find being Paragon in Mass Effect 2 to be more interesting.

Also how his Renegade Shepard now at odds with the Illusive Man in Mass Effect 3 since the Renegade Ending in Mass Effect both him and the Illusive Man still appear to be on the same side?

Well, it may had been because the Illusive Man withheld critical information that put Shepard and the crew in unnecessary danger one too many times. Anyways, I always play the Renegade path with Femshep. I think the voice actress does a better job in giving emotion to Renegade Shepard.

 

[EternallyBored]

I think the general issue is that renegade options also occupied the same spot as all of the no options, and the aggressive or jerk responses. Whereas Paragon was generally all of the yes or accepting options with the compliments. So playing pure paragon Shepard functions as your standard RPG protagonist who accepts all the requests and makes friends with all his teammates, whereas renegade Shepard rejects everything and insults even the characters a renegade player might like. Really you shouldn't be playing purely on either alignment, but renegade being on the negative scale makes it much harder to pull off in a consistent manner.

Another issue I had is that some of the Renegade choices felt really forced. Renegade is supposed to be someone that breaks the rules or gets ruthless to accomplish their goals, making hard decisions for the greater good, but like with the ME2 example, you get punished for this way more than being idealistic, and some of the choices felt like they were trying to go with ruthless but just dipped into stupid evil territory. The game feels like it goes out of its way sometimes to make you feel like a jerk without actually justifying why being a jerk or ruthless actually accomplished anything over the paragon route. It's just hard to justify some of Renegade Shepard's actions when you know Paragon Shepard gets the same or better results and has the advantage of people actually liking him. Paragon choices get punished all of once or twice I think, i.e. letting that Asari scientist go twice, and trusting that mercenary, the former just gives you a text and war score box in ME 3, and the other gets no consequence beyond a "haha oh shit" e-mail after the event. The Renegade option ends up with major characters either dead or hating you, multiple times where you just get pointlessly aggressive, or potentially sabotaging yourself when you already know the paragon option works.

Overall, I can kind of understand why this would be difficult for Bioware's writers to pull off, it's hard to portray people making morally questionable decisions as justifiable when you are putting the moral high ground idealist as having roughly the same amount of success. It's difficult to justify being a Renegade hard man making hard decisions when the player knows the choice is false and the Paragon Shepard can make those same decisions without the sacrifices that the renegade option is supposed to protect us from, i.e. what's the point of sacrificing personnel to accomplish an objective when we know that the other option still accomplishes the goal, saves more people, and has them all love you and look up to you and praise you in the end.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Renegade Shepard isn't fully evil. Renegade is chaotic, breaks the rules and does anything to get the job done, no matter the consequences and without showing mercy. So yeah, a jerk and a bully; but not evil. Renegade Shephard fits perfectly in Mass Effect 2, as Cerberus is portrayed like that. Something common in the Renegade interrupts is how frequently are to get the upper hand in battle (like shooting at the villain at mid of his evil monologue).

Yet I still find being Paragon in Mass Effect 2 to be more interesting.

Also how his Renegade Shepard now at odds with the Illusive Man in Mass Effect 3 since the Renegade Ending in Mass Effect both him and the Illusive Man still appear to be on the same side?

Well, it may had been because the Illusive Man withheld critical information that put Shepard and the crew in unnecessary danger one too many times. Anyways, I always play the Renegade path with Femshep. I think the voice actress does a better job in giving emotion to Renegade Shepard.

Haven't see the female version of "Commander Shepard is such a jerk"

But I personally prefer the Male Voice Actor for Paragon Shepard. He voice sounds like a Good Guy's voice.

Also the female voice actor has this throaty sound that she sound's like she's orgasming every time she talks.

But that's because she also voiced Naomi Hunter in Metal Gear Solid.

 

[The Madman]

Renegade Femshep for life yo.

But more seriously, the best story I find is for a nice blend. My favourite playthrough has definitely been my tough as nails 'get the job done no matter the cost' femshep with the ruthless background. When it comes to military decisions always go with the most efficient option, even if it is also the most violent, while in more personal dealings just go with whatever option though when given the option do express some regret.

Spoiler: You also get some cool scenes like this one. Spoilers.

Obviously it's projection, but I feel like this mix makes Shepard a bit more of a compelling character to have to struggle with doing the right thing. I also like how in the 'I'll stop you if I have to' option from the above video, even assuming you don't pull the trigger, Shepard goes on to throw the gun she'd been using away in disgust. That was deliberate, and it's good character building.

Plus Shepard looks cool with just the right amount of scarring.

 

[hermes]

Yeah. I think most Paragon dialogue options make sense for the character, while Renegade Shepard comes around as needlessly rude, a dick and a sociopath. Hardly the kind of person that would inspire loyalty from some of the biggest badasses of the Galaxy.

The only moments when I got full Renegade was when I talked with the Illusive Man in 2, because it was clear he was smug, shifty and had a lot of hidden agendas. I didn't feel anything by contempt for him.

 

[Silverbeard]

Obviously it's projection, but I feel like this mix makes Shepard a bit more of a compelling character to have to struggle with doing the right thing. I also like how in the 'I'll stop you if I have to' option from the above video, even assuming you don't pull the trigger, Shepard goes on to throw the gun she'd been using away in disgust. That was deliberate, and it's good character building.

Plus Shepard looks cool with just the right amount of scarring.

That had to be my favorite moment in all of ME 3. Even the simple act of tying the trigger pull to a renegade interrupt was a masterful design decision. You literally do need to use the same button you've been using to mow down fools all game long to stop Mordin. They could have just made that a dialogue wheel option and the scene would have suffered greatly for it, I believe.

 

[Tayh]

I've always preferred the Renegade path.
Ruthless, effective and fighting for the greater good.
Link to tvtropes "Good is not soft" [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodIsNotSoft]
It was perfectly possible to be 100% renegade and still have good relations with your crewmates, including romances and loyal bonds.
I never felt like I was missing out on anything when playing renegade, whereas paragon always felt like a weak, goody-two-shoes to the point where they'd let known criminals get away just because they asked nicely.

 

[Prime_Hunter_H01]

I prefer being a blend. 80% Paragon, 20% Renegade.

My shep was a reformed renegade. I started off with the Ruthless background, and treated that as his personal shame that shook him out of his ways and made him start being more self-sacrificing.

So I did mostly good things and continually has Shep sacrifice his own happiness and safety (by the end I was playing him as a near-suicidal vanguard), but if I had a chance to get an advantage over an enemy who turned their back on me, I'd take it. I also tolerated no BS. What's that, a Krogan dude is disrespecting me? HEADBUTT. Salarian is upset that I'm trying to end the genophage? Called him out on it, the reapers are way more important to stop right now. Despite it all, Quarian commander is trying to genocide the geth who are helpless? Told the guy I'd let the geth upgrade, so that if he continued the attack he's slaughter his own entire race (It worked, he backed off, Yessssss!).

I found this particularly interesting to play.

Replaying the trilogy myself right now and this is what I aim for as well. Just because Shepard is good doesn't mean she is a saint or perfect. And plenty of people in the galaxy piss her off quite severely. While the ever present "I did not mean to say that" problem is there, I feel as though the more natural renegade options stand out as less asshole because reasons and more, this time you have worn out my patience.

 

[Asita]

Pretty much, yeah. Renegade's there to create a divergent personality, but it doesn't really fit the narrative in any real sense. Some of the Renegade options certainly make sense, but on the high concept level Renegade basically ended up being Dark Side-lite. Which is to say that it tended towards runaway arrogance, jerkiness, and more than a few bad tactical decisions.

Ultimately, if you went Paragon you were Captain America. If you were Renegade, you were a rabid cop. The former works for the narrative, especially considering that the first game's primary antagonist was Saren who more or less embodied the renegade philosophy, as did the Illusive man in the second game, and Cerberus as a whole in both Mass Effect 1 and 3. For narrative purposes Shepard needs to contrast that. In Mass Effect 1, Shepard needed to be the antithesis of Saren. To a lesser extent, Shepard also needed to contrast the hotheaded Garrus for the latter's character development. In Mass Effect 2, Shepard needed to embody a trait that Cerberus lacked (Especially considering their role in Mass Effect 3). In Mass Effect 3, Shepard had to be a leader that everyone could follow in the face of apocalyptic odds, and consequentially has to be seen as charismatic, diplomatic, smart, capable...nearly messianic, really. In no installment does Renegade actually work better than Paragon. At best it works about as well as Paragon, and at worst it makes significantly less sense.