8 Reasons Why Mass Effect’s Story Isn’t As Great As You Think
2. The Illusive Man’s Plan Was Doomed From The Start
The Illusive Man was a big hit for Mass Effect, garnering praise from gamers and game sites for being beautifully enigmatic, darkly villainous, and a snappy dresser. He inhabits a morally grey area, sorta like The X-Files’ Smoking Man – sometimes good, sometimes bad, always smoking, always mysterious.
The character has been described by Mass Effect 2 producer Adrien Cho as the best and worst of humanity, all rolled into one. That means while the Illusive Man is super-intelligent (the best), he’s also super-stupid (the worst). His grand scheme goes from advocating a humans-first policy to using Shepard to hunt down the kidnapper Collectors to controlling the Reapers for his own gain. All sounds good on paper. In practice… eh.
For starters, Shepard is an unpredictable and unknown quantity, and hardly someone you’d trust on a mission that, above all, requires loyalty and a belief in the Illusive Man’s cause. If this commander wants to awkwardly dance the night away, he will; if he wants to gun down innocent Salarians, that’s his/her prerogative.
Secondly, the Illusive Man knows just how dangerous the Reaper threat is, but that still doesn’t stop him ploughing headlong into a disastrous policy. Ultimately, despite his grandstanding, there was no way this was going to end well for the Illusive Man. Makes you wonder why he even bothered in the first place.