10 Video Game NPCs With Awesome Details You Totally Missed
1. Fans Hate Ashley, But Can’t Be Without Her - Mass Effect Series
Those of us who have played Mass Effect (which is to say, the best of humanity) will have no doubt pondered over their game-changing moral choices at length.
“Did I do the right thing? Did I honestly do all I could to save my friends? Was it really worth dooming my player character to death just for a bit of sexy-time with a hot blue alien wifie?”
Arguably the biggest decision to make in the first instalment is which of your friends you intend upon sending to sacrifice themselves on the planet Virmire, as part of an assault/bomb-planting mission. One has to die, so it makes sense to choose the one you like best, right?
Well, in opinion polls, the biotic officer Kaiden consistently scores higher in terms of general likability, as a more friendly, charismatic individual (with the alternative, Ashley, being portrayed as a boorish, alien-hating space-racist... a spacist).
However, remarkably, the vast majority of players opt to save Ashley, with her even having the fourth-highest survivability rate of the optional cast in the whole trilogy (53%) whilst poor, adorable human-puppy Kaiden only survives in a meagre 17% of total playthroughs.
Come on, folks. Don’t think rashly - ditch that Ashley.