10 Video Game Plot-Holes You Can't Ignore
7. Mass Effect - The Reaper's Plan Is Almost Left To Chance
It’s a brilliantly simple plan. The Reapers leave the highly technologically advanced Citadel drifting in space, centuries later to be discovered by the galaxy’s most advanced races who make it their seat of government. But the Citadel is a doorway, through which the Reapers begin their campaign of genocide.
Genius... until you get to the details.
The plan hinges on the Citadel’s caretakers to open the door on command. Hack said caretakers, as the Protheans did, and the Reapers are left locked out of their own linchpin. Insert Homer Simpson ‘Doh!’ here.
A simple manual override, isolated from the rest of the Citadel’s systems, could have easily bypassed the vulnerability and provide some much needed redundancy. And yet the Reapers, who are meant to be beyond comprehension, who have perpetuated the cycle of genocide for aeons, never considered, not once, that they might need a backup plan?
You can argue that Sovereign, the Reaper vanguard, was worried about Citadel defenses. But as shown in the game that fleet poses little threat.
Hubris is one thing, but this is plain old stupidity, and it’s completely out of character.