Mass Effect 3 Has Controversial Scene In First Moments

With video games in today’s modern world, we’re not exactly unfamiliar with scenes that some might find disturbing or unsettling but when I got to take the first 90 minutes or so of Mass Effect 3 for a spin last week, one particular scene got me wondering. Now if you don’t want Mass Effect 3 spoiled in any way, please don’t read on but the following is only a minor spoiler anyway.

Minor spoilers ahoy!

Still here? Good. Early in Mass Effect 3 during the Reapers’[..]ault on Earth, Shepard encounters a child in a ventilation shaft. Shepard unsuccessfully tries to coax the boy out and the boy disappears from view. When Shepard finally escapes from Earth on the Normandy’s smaller shuttle, you get a small scene that shows the child from earlier hopping onto an escape ship. Shepard smiles to themselves, all is good. Until the child’s escape shuttle is hit by a blast from a Reaper and blown into smithereens.

Now, whilst not particularly graphic and I personally don’t have a problem with it, it reminded me of a different scene from a certain Modern War themed shooter last year. Naturally I’m referring to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and the infamous scene that sees a child tourist and her mother blown up by a passing terrorist whilst they’re visiting London. Whilst it didn’t create quite as much uproar as the even more infamous No Russian sequence from Modern Warfare 2, it did raise eyebrows. Now Mass Effect 3 has effectively gone and done the exact same thing. A child is happy, a child dies. In neither game do you see anything graphic or traumatising, instead it’s obscured and you’re left to ponder the situation yourself.

Whereas it was deemed inappropriate and unnecessary in the context of Modern Warfare 3, I can’t see the same being said for Mass Effect 3. Personally, I’m not particularly bothered by either but I’m curious to know what others think of this. What makes it okay for Mass Effect 3 to do such a thing whilst Modern Warfare 3 is panned for it? Perhaps this is a low point for the team at BioWare? Leave your comments below. For our full preview of Mass Effect 3′s explosive opening (spoiler-less, promise!), head over here and see what we thought.

Don't care. The Reapers are here. Kids will die.

already played that part in the alpha that leaked on the 360

jizzman you're a failure

Don't care. The Reapers are here. Kids will die.

Don't care. The Reapers are here. Kids will die.