10 Video Game Moments Where You Were Screwed Either Way

2. Mass Effect - Ashley Or Kaiden

mass effect ashley kaidan
Bioware

Mass Effect makes another appearance on this list but it’s for good reason as the choice between saving Ashley or Kaiden late in ME1 is a classic example of a game telling the player they’re screwed either way. There’s just no way to save them both and this decision affects which of the two will appear during the rest of the series so it’s a pretty big deal.

Less of a deal if you already had it out for Ashley the space racist or Kaiden the moody revamp of Knights of the Old Republic’s Carth Onassi. But still, dropping one of your main squadmates only to continue the series for two more full games was a pretty crazy move at the time and plenty of players felt super trapped in the decision where they couldn’t save both.

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Jess has been a journalist and content creator in the games industry for over 15 years and has been WhatCulture's resident Australian import and sorry cop since 2020, upping the quotient of swearing and apologising in WhatCulture Gaming's annual blooper videos considerably. She previously worked at GameSpot for 10 years, most notably hosting GameSpot News in addition to E3 live shows, and PAX panels. She regularly livestreams a variety of games on her 'jessmcdonell' YouTube and Twitch channels and hosts the 'Do It On The Day' podcast. She has won awards for her news and feature work in gaming as well as an accolade for her comedic writing (likely an admin error). She can be found on X at @jessmcdonell and Instagram at @jessicamcdonell sharing her current videogame fixations, industry insights, and videos of her cat, Karma.