The first three Mass Effect games featured a Paragon and Renegade system — essentially how good or bad Shepard was — and Mass Effect 2 and 3 allowed the player to interrupt certain conversations with Paragon or Renegade actions. Mass Effect: Andromeda removed the Paragon vs. Renegade binary.
It was probably for the best: 90% of players chose to be Paragon, because the stat is tied into Shepard’s conversational abilities, and if you chose a little Renegade and a little Paragon, you’d never get a high enough stat to be charming or intimidating. Considering how harsh a lot of the Renegade responses are, it’s not surprising that players usually preferred the Paragon route. However, it’s too bad that players couldn’t use the Renegade prompts when they popped up because some of them are brutal, hilarious, badass, or heart-wrenching. These are the best.
10 Drinking Contest With Ashley
Ashley Williams is a recurring character in Mass Effect who gets a big glow-up in the third game. Showing off her lighter side — the ability to relax, which all military members must have or develop to survive — Ashley can challenge Shepard to a drinking contest at the Silver Coast Casino. She will take a shot, and the player is prompted with a Renegade interrupt allowing them to drink too. To win the contest, the player has to stick it out for four interrupts and take four shots, or else Ashley has lots of trash talk prepared about Shepard’s ability to hold their liquor.
9 Punching Khalisah al-Jilani
Even if the player wants to play Mass Effect as angelically as possible, there are plenty of temptations to the dark side. The most irresistible is the chance to punch the reporter Khalisah al-Jilani, who’s been annoying the player since the first game. Shepard gets not one but three opportunities to chase her off this way, usually leading to a bad reputation on local news. However, Shepard can’t be sure that her news segment would be complimentary anyway, considering the snide comments and hostile questioning she uses.
8 Shooting Oriana To Get To Henry Lawson
Miranda Lawson, a companion of Shepard’s starting in Mass Effect 2, was abused and bred to be genetically perfect by her father, Henry Lawson. She was not his first genetic-experiment-baby, but she was the first that Henry deemed good enough to keep. Miranda had an identical sister named Oriana who Henry grew when Miranda was a teenager, but Miranda stole Oriana and left her in an orphanage.
However, in Mass Effect 3, Henry is out to get his lost daughter back, and Shepard has to help Miranda save Oriana. At the quest’s finale, Shepard can pull a renegade interrupt and shoot Oriana in the leg to surprise Henry, thus getting the upper hand. Though it’s regrettable to wound Oriana, it’s worth it to get revenge on a crazy eugenicist.
7 Kicking Out Admiral Gerrel
Having Tali as a crewmate often drags Shepard into Quarian politics and affairs. During Mass Effect 3, the player interacts with Quarian Admiral Han’Gerrel vas Neema, who they met in the previous game. The player feels like they can trust him since he defended Tali the last time they met.
However, Shepard is about to see the depth of Gerrel’s hatred for the Geth, he fires on a Geth ship while Shepard and crew are still on board. Thankfully, the player escapes with their life. When they meet Gerrel again, a satisfying Renegade interrupt allows them to punch him in the stomach mid-sentence and dishonorably throw him off their ship.
6 Killing The Illusive Man
Shepard and the Illusive Man have a complicated history, unfolding over the course of Mass Effect 2 and 3. Of course, Shepard owes him their life, since Cerberus resurrected the player at the beginning of Mass Effect 2, and they go on to work for Cerberus, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Shepard agrees with his politics.
At the tail-end of Mass Effect 3, a Renegade interrupt allows the player to shoot the Illusive Man as he rambles, clearly indoctrinated by the Reapers. Whether the player sees it as a vindicating moment setting his soul free, or a satisfying end to an annoying person’s life, the option is powerful.
5 Killing Mordin
Mordin Solus is a Salarian scientist who helped to create the genophage. The Krogans were a violent race prone to war, and the Salarians created the Genophage to limit their numbers but assumed that it would never be used. The Turians, on the other hand, took over and released it as soon as it was finished. It was a disease that caused Krogan women to be unlikely to carry a pregnancy to term. Mordin is vocal about how he regrets his part in creating the genophage, and at the end of Mass Effect 3, he has the opportunity to cure it. Shepard has the option, through a Renegade interrupt, to shoot him as he ascends on an elevator to take the final step. Whatever the player’s morals, this decision was huge just for the impact it had on the universe of Mass Effect as a whole.
4 Headbutting A Krogan
Grunt is a Krogan companion picked up during Mass Effect 2, who has been grown in a lab by scientists in an attempt to solve the genophage and help reinvigorate the Krogans species. During the game, Grunt asks to visit the Krogan homeworld, Tuchanka, where he takes his Rite of Passage (a Krogan coming-of-age tradition). However, one Krogan, the leader of Clan Gatatog, takes issue with Grunt participating in the Rite, since he was bred in a lab. A renegade prompt allows Shepard to defend Grunt’s honor, headbutting the clan leader in a Krogan fashion. Shepard not passing out after a blow to the head like that is impressive enough.
3 Blowing Up The Reaper
During the Priority mission on Rannoch, Shepard investigates a Reaper base. After some engagement with Geth forces, a Reaper begins to emerge from the base. The sprint away from it and onto a safe transport is hectic, with the Reaper frying the player if they aren’t quick enough. Finally, they get the chance to take aim at the Reaper, hitting it with missiles even as it locks on with its laser beam. Once Shepard has killed the monstrosity, a brief conversation ensues between the two. Renegade Shepard can use an interrupt to dismiss the Reaper’s foretelling of doom and simply take one last shot, firing missiles right into its center and blowing it up entirely.
2 Killing Kai Leng
Kai Leng is an assassin, working for Cerberus. Though his organization actually rescued Shepard during Mass Effect 2, by the time he appears in Mass Effect 3, Shepard is no longer associated with Cerberus. Indeed, when Shepard runs into Kai Leng for the last time, they are infiltrating Cerberus’ headquarters. After a long battle with Kai, made difficult because EDI is a required party member on this mission, the player earns a brief cutscene where Kai attempts to sneak up on Shepard and assassinate him with the sword. The Renegade interrupt allows the player to catch Kai mid-swing, shattering his sword and stabbing him in the leg with an omniblade.
1 Throwing A Mercenary Out A Window
Throwing the Eclipse Mercenary out the window is, by far, the best Renegade interrupt. Even Paragon players can use it, if they can spare a couple of Paragon points, without feeling too bad; they’ve killed swaths of troops up until now, so this is no different. The shot of him shattering the glass and falling dozens of stories is satisfying in a way that players didn’t anticipate. During Mass Effect 2, Shepard interrogates this Eclipse mercenary about the location of Thane while they are making their way through Dantius Towers. When he’s not cooperative, the player gets the Renegade interrupt option to push him out the window and stop him from alerting other mercenaries to Shepard’s presence.
NEXT: Mass Effect 2: Ever Paragon Interrupt (And When It Happens)
