10 Video Games With Questions You Won't Want To Answer

8. Is Organic Life Inferior To Machines? - Mass Effect

Though its divisive, oh-dear-god-what's-happening ending went down in gaming history as a dud, the core question at the heart of the Reapers' purpose is more than worthwhile.

Set up as a mass extinctive force triggered every few millennia as a galaxy-wide reset button, they operate off the back of the idea that life isn't worth living, if it's not always optimal. Controlled by the Catalyst (Starchild), Mass Effect 3 posits that on a long enough timeline, synthetic life will always rebel against natural life, and thus, by wiping the board, everyone gets a fair chance again.

It's the nuclear option in-world, but taps into the idea that life should always be streamlined. That the errors and bumps along the way - however violent - are "unwanted", and should seek to be purged.

Mass Effect 1 also tackled this through Saren; the villain of the piece who actually thought he was doing all of us a great favour. Saren's solution to the Reaper apocalypse was to assimilate people into Geth, thereby "saving" them through conversion, as a machine body would assumedly be more efficient.