3. Lackluster Main Villains
Like many good scifi franchises, Mass Effect has an incredible variety of antagonists, from minor ones like mercenary companies to major ones like Cerberus. So it's a bit surprising that the entire trilogy's plot revolved around some of the most boring major villains imaginable. And yes, that means the Reapers. The one of biggest problems with the Reapers was that they were too similar to past villains. Their shape, age, and some of their abilities are meant to evoke Lovecraft. They manipulate younger races like Babylon 5's Shadows. They run a cycle of killing everything in the galaxy like the Inhibitors in Revelation Space and tons of other scifi villains. It feels like someone went to TVTropes, looked around for a few hours, and mashed together the ones they thought were cool to form the Reapers. They even have a numerical and technological advantage that requires an epic final battle while a Deus Ex Machina is prepared. But the biggest problem was that until Mass Effect 3, we had no motivation for the Reapers. In Mass Effect 1, you get to pump Sovereign for information about everything the Reapers are doing, except why they're doing it. And this is a problem, because not knowing why the villain does things feels like you're jerking the audience around, which sets higher expectations for the motive than there would be if it was simply revealed. As seen with shows like Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and others, the more you delay that revelation, the higher the minimum bar is for a satisfying motive. Why? Because the audience expects the writers to come up with something that at least justifies keeping them in the dark for so long. And when the reveal is poorly thought out and poorly executed, it makes the audience feel ripped off, especially when they had to pay $60+ dollars to get it. What Bioware Montreal needs to do is simple: make a villain with a clear motivation that is explained up front, preferably not the Leviathans. There's no need for another ancient evil awakens plot in the first post-Reaper game ever when Mass Effect already has tons of interesting antagonists in the forms of mercenary companies, terrorists, criminals, and so much more. And even better, not using an ancient evil would mean the villain could be beaten without messing up the entire galaxy... again.