Mass Effect: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Shepard
5. Shepard Is Responsible For 300,000+ Deaths
While they're renowned as a hero who ultimately saved the galaxy, there's kinda the problem of Shepard being a mass-murderer in order to achieve this goal. In fact, they're actually responsible for a total of over 300,000 deaths across the entire series. Good going, Shep!
Shepard's kill count, naturally rises as the game involves shooting lots of things which are trying to kill you. However, the vast bulk of the murders take place in Mass Effect 2's Arrival DLC, in which Shepard must sacrifice the lives of over 300,000 Batarians, just to delay the Reapers slightly.
This forms the beginning of Mass Effect 3, where Shepard is on trial for this mass genocide. However, it's quickly brushed under the rug as the Reapers launch a full-scale invasion of Earth, meaning Shep's trial is cancelled and they get off scot-free.
As always on the net, some hero stepped up to the plate and calculated Shepard's exact death total. Incorporating the Batarian colonists slain at the end of ME2, by the end of the trilogy, Shepard is ultimately responsible for 310, 609 deaths that we know about.