I'm not going to pretend to know anything about Half Life, but I do know some stuff about Mass Effect.
In Mass Effect 3, the Reapers don't care about taking the planet or forcing surrender, they just want as many people dead as quick as possible. They didn't target towns or small cities, they only went after they highly populated ones. They make it a point in a log somewhere, saying that the Reapers only went after expected evacuation stations, not the ones in small areas. The most Dreadnought Class Reapers in one city that you see was, I think, 5. They didn't really send many to attack Earth, just what was needed. Even so, they had Reapers all over the galaxy, tearing up any and all home worlds that they could get to. It takes quite a lot to kill a Reaper, as well. Either there needs to be a colossal fleet firing at a single one all at the same time, or you have to shoot it with a few very large missiles in it's "eye," just before it incinerates everything in front of it.
Earth is effectively lost on the first day, wiping out all chains of command, points of high importance, communication lines, everything. Anderson is the only thing keeping the forces on Earth in control, and even then, he's having one hell of a time doing it, rarely ever being able to command anything other than what he's got at the moment. He can barely hold it together.
Shepard is part of the N7 program. N means that he's part of the Special Ops and 7 means that he's one of the best of the best, it's based off experience, not rank. He's the first human to get Spectre status, that's how good of a soldier he is.
What Shepard has to do, plain and simple, is stop the Reapers. Sounds easy enough, but that means uniting the other galactic species. Species that nobody thought would unite, not in a bazillion years, give or take. All he has at his disposal to do this with is his charisma, which could be a lot or not much, depending on how you play it.
Someone puts it quite well, in one game. "You've made a career on doing the impossible, Shepard." Can't remember who said it. Pretty sure it was Thane.
I don't know if I left anything out or if any of this was necessary, but there you go. Feel free to correct me where I'm wrong. I can't vote on the matter as I don't know enough about Half Life to compare situations.
In Mass Effect 3, the Reapers don't care about taking the planet or forcing surrender, they just want as many people dead as quick as possible. They didn't target towns or small cities, they only went after they highly populated ones. They make it a point in a log somewhere, saying that the Reapers only went after expected evacuation stations, not the ones in small areas. The most Dreadnought Class Reapers in one city that you see was, I think, 5. They didn't really send many to attack Earth, just what was needed. Even so, they had Reapers all over the galaxy, tearing up any and all home worlds that they could get to. It takes quite a lot to kill a Reaper, as well. Either there needs to be a colossal fleet firing at a single one all at the same time, or you have to shoot it with a few very large missiles in it's "eye," just before it incinerates everything in front of it.
Earth is effectively lost on the first day, wiping out all chains of command, points of high importance, communication lines, everything. Anderson is the only thing keeping the forces on Earth in control, and even then, he's having one hell of a time doing it, rarely ever being able to command anything other than what he's got at the moment. He can barely hold it together.
Shepard is part of the N7 program. N means that he's part of the Special Ops and 7 means that he's one of the best of the best, it's based off experience, not rank. He's the first human to get Spectre status, that's how good of a soldier he is.
What Shepard has to do, plain and simple, is stop the Reapers. Sounds easy enough, but that means uniting the other galactic species. Species that nobody thought would unite, not in a bazillion years, give or take. All he has at his disposal to do this with is his charisma, which could be a lot or not much, depending on how you play it.
What Shepard has to do is cure the Genophage to unite the Krogan and Turian. Something that nobody would dare do in fear of the Krogan Rebellions happening again. After that, he has to unite the Quarians and the Geth, or just get the Quarians on his side. That means either genocide of a synthetic species or the uniting of one species that tried to genocide the other, reclaiming their home world. Again, something that nobody thought would be possible, ever.
Someone puts it quite well, in one game. "You've made a career on doing the impossible, Shepard." Can't remember who said it. Pretty sure it was Thane.
I don't know if I left anything out or if any of this was necessary, but there you go. Feel free to correct me where I'm wrong. I can't vote on the matter as I don't know enough about Half Life to compare situations.