Dynamic Storytelling in Mass Effect 3’s "Cure the Genophage" Mission

[@KafshakTashtak]

Shepherd: Why change you mind now. Mordin: I MADE A MISTAKE, I made a mistake. That line broke me. Masterpiece of story telling.

[@alainapowerchick2025]

I'm forever heartbroken about losing Mordin. He had some of the best dialogue.

[@TheRealHiccup]

"Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong." :(

[@Apethantos]

"I am the very model of ..." Me, crying: ...a scientist Salarian...

[@palebluenarratives]

It's hard to be good

[@SeanMather]

This comment deserves the 100th like 👍

[@hamjoy3602]

I remember Wrex being the happiest ally to see Shep alive and hugged him. I knew then the Krogans needed to survive :')

[@alainapowerchick2025]

I need to replay ME because I lost Wrex in the first game. 😭 He was my favorite and I screwed something up during my run through. I was stuck with Wreave in 3.

[@jon-umber]

Everyone else questions how Shepard's still alive. Wrex doesn't give a fuck, he just shoves everyone aside and yells "Shepard! My friend!"

[@sknight43]

God this makes me even more hyped for ME Legendary Edition. Cannot wait to revisit all the great missions like this one

[@StoryModeOn]

We're so pumped to replay the series!

[@vegaobscurax23]

I’m from the future and ME legendary edition is bloody great.

[@McBackstabber]

"I want you to know that no matter what happens, you’ve been a champion to the krogan people. A friend of Clan Urdnot. And a sister to me." - Wrex before charging on the Shroud. 😭

[@bluesrike]

"To every Krogan born after this day, the name 'Shepard' will mean 'hero'!"

[@koalatea8126]

OH man. You know they did something right with this mission when I still remembering how it felt, all these years later. RIP Mordin

[@JimothyLahey]

YES! Thank you for doing a video on Mass Effect, and you covered one of my favorite missions ever. Great video!

[@FieldOfViewGameDesign]

Stories within stories within stories- Mass Effect is one of those rare narrative epics in the video game world. I really owe it myself to play more of it. This was a fantastically-produced video, as usual! (Also, awesome that you include the full interview.) - Stephen

[@haarismian9380]

Absolutely loved this video. I loved the mission and it was easily one of the highlights of the game, but its really nice to see how much work and thought goes into it.

[@StoryModeOn]

Glad you enjoyed! Talking to Dave and Boyd, it was clear a ton of work and love went into crafting these games.

[@vitek2]

Mass Effect 3 is a masterpiece and I will die on that hill.

[@jon-umber]

Hell yes. There are certain scenarios in ME3 that are as good as any in the series. My personal favorite in the game is Rannoch by far, but the Genophage is an excellent one, too.

[@evilbeardedman]

Oh man, this brings back some strong feelings. Incredible story.

[@jasonhoule5947]

The galactic politics behind the Genophage, Mordin's arc, and the excitement of the Tuchanka mission really is the best the series has to offer. Wonderful Sci fi that can only be told through video games. Cool stuff

[@Ideeem]

This mission was the most memorable moment in ME3 to me.

[@robchuk4136]

This video was awesome. One of my favorite missions, but I hadn't really thought about it in depth. The way the story takes you through the pros and cons of that fateful choice is really masterful. And I love that he said it wasn't about making any character happy, but truly what you as the player feel would be best.

[@GuiiBrazil]

And all this guys are not working on Bioware anymore. As a gamer I learned the hard way, that we need to start looking for the names behind this masterpieces. Rather the label or the name the company they work for. Cheers for this talented people, I hope they made more games for us to enjoy and remember in the future.

[@jon-umber]

This arc was written by Patrick Weekes, who's currently writing Dragon Age 4.

[@scottydk007]

This is soooo great! I love the use of interviews to add an extra layer!!!!

[@StoryModeOn]

Thanks! :)

[@jon-umber]

"I made a mistake!" is one of the single best lines in the series, in my opinion.

[@isabella3746]

Damn you! Now I need to buy a new box of tissues...

[@kirstimanning4215]

I'm so excited about your involvement in the next mass effect!!

[@camerongodsey9847]

Love this new channel Michael & co.! Playing through ME Trilogy for the first time via Legendary Edition and this video was a heavy push for that Would love to see a video on how L.A. Noire creates a complex protagonist through omission of information and comparison to your ‘companions’. Such a narratively rich game that would seem perfect for this channel!

[@KafshakTashtak]

Since we're talking about Mass Effect Series, one thing I liked about Mass Effect 2 is the the Harbinger Character. From game mechanic perspective, it's just a tough enemy like any other tough enemies throughout the game (like Brute or Banshee). But from story perspective, It's always 1 guy that keeps coming to fight you. No matter how many times you kill him, he comes back.

[@commanderpoppinfresh5288]

I played Mass Effect 3 when it came out but I barely remember what happened in it, but one of the only things that I still remember is this mission. Absolutely fantastic, so excited for the remaster!

[@davegal808]

Just replayed this game recently, and I was amazed by how much this mission stuck with me from my original playthrough years ago. Only appreciated it more.

[@guillaumeiperty8832]

We need more videos like this one. Awesome work.

[@TheLshyne]

Another excellent video. This is why Mass Effect is one of the greatest trilogies of all time.

[@YasmeenCheM]

I remember playing this for the 1st time. Broke my heart when my Shep left Mordin behind. Subsequently, every time I replayed ME3, I never managed to play it all the way through bc I wanted to believe everyone in the team survived. The Mass Effect trilogy truly was a lightning in a bottle

[@thechroniclesofthesuperhob167]

Is there any chance of a red dead redemption 2 video, that game is so fascinating

[@therupoe]

Yeah! +1 on this request! I just finally finished the game and I think there' quite a bit to discuss there.

[@thechroniclesofthesuperhob167]

@@therupoe definitely !

[@hagrid1123]

Fantastic video.I just played this mission.Would definitely love to see more vids like this.

[@joshcummins3916]

When Mordin died I cried. The mass effect series did characters right. Thanks for making this.

[@SeanMather]

Was excited for Mass Effect Legendary... good thing I’ve already played the trilogy otherwise I would be getting worried about the extreme levels of hype this video is generating for me! What’s even crazier is how this mission plays out even beyond what was discussed in the video. It’s possible Mordin and Wrex are dead before the mission even begins depending on your choices previously. That pushes the moral dilemma even more on your shoulders, because you don’t have the nostalgia for the characters to persuade you in either direction. I was so sad when Mordin gave everything to cure the genophage, but I’m pulling for Eve and Wrex, and I feel like being their ally will only be a good thing for humanity. Hopefully we’ll get to see how it plays out in ME4/5/whatever they call the next one.

[@vipulgupta4348]

Such a good video. You've earned a sub.

[@darthwikkie]

Thank you for not mentioning the Catalyst. The lack of player agency still pisses me off almost a decade later.

[@StoryModeOn]

Watch our Mass Effect 3 livestream: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJ3Ilnmgq8Z2n7s Who's your favorite squad-mate? The one you couldn't live without.

[@LessonsfromtheScreenplay]

Liara. Or Garrus! Or Legion?! This is an impossible choice to make.

[@bserway]

WREX

[@zacky7572]

Tali

[@n7grey]

As much as I love Liara, the trilogy just wouldn’t be the same without Garrus. Gotta be him

[@ADeadlierSnake]

LEGION

[@mikehiebert6227]

Now we're just waiting on the Story Mode video about Disco Elysium that Michael was teasing in this week's podcast 👀

[@dylon.edmunds]

GMTK crossover episode?

[@StoryModeOn]

We chatted about Mass Effect with Mark from GMTK on our podcast: anchor.fm/beyondthescreenplay/episodes/Episode-79-Mass-Effect-with-Mark-Brown-of-Game-Makers-Toolkit-e10cnis

[@dylon.edmunds]

@@StoryModeOn oh totally swag

[@Mgamerz]

Hah, I could tell you used my controller mod before reading the description - the save text is in the top left! ;)

[@StoryModeOn]

Amazing work on the mods and modding tools!

[@BMM51]

I felt so bad when I shot Mordin that I reloaded my save and did a do over.

[@StoryModeOn]

Can't even imagine shooting Mordin! The emotional toll.

[@SaberRexZealot]

Shame they couldn’t keep up this quality for the ending.

[@Sazed0]

I think the video should be titled something like "Storytelling Dynamics and Level Design in Mass Effect 3" because I feel like for most gamers the words "dynamic level design" will mean something more akin to the mechanical aspects of level design, not the narrative one. I was really confused when I saw the title myself, I had no idea what it was actually going to be about before I started watching it.

[@l4nzel0d]

Same here. Agree with your suggestion

[@stephenlarson5875]

But why were you using the Phaeston and Graal though?

[@wowsocreative]

Why did this video just make me cry? ;--;

[@LabradorIndependent]

While we're on the topic, A Future for the Krogan is quietly the best piece of music on any Mass Effect soundtrack

[@larry3828]

great analysis

[@Horadrius]

The sheer brilliance of missions like these within Mass Effect 3 just make the ending all the more baffling. I know it's been nearly a decade but it still stings - seeing the care and effort put into missions like Tuchanka and Rannoch makes the lackluster effort put into the Thessia mission and the ending seem just....insulting.

[@Tydeous]

I know this is an old comment, but there's a good reason for it. The leaked alpha & beta script reveal that the final mission was meant to be far different to what we got. More akin to the Suicide Mission in ME2 than the linear map we get in 3. Unfortunately, time constraints meant it never received the effort it & the playerbase deserved.

[@Jude3e]

Mass effect 3 did not deserve the hate it got. Amazing game.

[@ofcrgry]

The reason why Mass Effect 3 got the hate it got is because of its ending. The reason why Mass Effect 3’s ending got the hate it got is because it didn’t incorporate the impact of branched decisions. It could’ve done better in that regards and it certainly could’ve done better in conveying the philosophy behind such an outcome. Reducing the ending to 4 choices didn’t have to be bad; the execution just needed to be better. Regardless, the ending shouldn’t invalidate the rest of the game.

[@nate8x24]

@@ofcrgry I hate how many people only bring up the ending for Mass Effect 3 when talking about it. There was so much good in that game just covered by one bad 15-minute stretch. But I get it, the ending is the most important part, its where all of our decisions should have culminated.

[@kingdead42]

Who's that guy pretending to be Shepard?

[@StoryModeOn]

I know, it's weird right?

[@Ayoul]

It's funny, "Dynamic level design", or anything "dynamic" (the adjective) really, is already a specific thing in game design and it's not what the video is about so I was confused for a sec cause ME3 definitely doesn't have dynamic level design and I was surprised Micheal was tackling such a subject. I don't have a better title for this video at the top of my head, but I think it's important to point out.

[@muhtasimfahmid7844]

-Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong -I am Urdnot Wrex and this is my planet! -We'll give that Reaper something else to shoot at Easily one of the greatest video game segments, just for the dialogue, let alone all these stuff LFTS explained. If you haven't played the trilogy, you owe it to yourself, go play it now.

[@GonziHere]

RIP Marauder Shields. You've tried to stop us, but we wouldn't listen. Never forget.

[@HxH2011DRA]

Giant monster fights are good

[@stuartdenton8537]

Your videos are still broken for some devices. I don't know why this videos are different to all the other content that plays flawlessly on my Android TV, but after about 3 mins, the frame freezes whilst the audio continues. This happens ~3 mins from wherever I start the video, so it's not a particular moment, but an attritional thing to do with the file. Never an issue with Lessons From The Screenplay videos, so I don't know what the difference is between the files you upload, but it's not working for all devices. Good content once I made my Switch do the work

[@StoryModeOn]

That is strange. These videos are 4K at 60fps, so they’re more demanding than LFTS’s 1440p at 24fps. I wonder if you would have the same problem with other 4K@60 videos. Or if you manually set it to play at a lower resolution? That’s annoying, though, I’m sorry you’re having that issue.

[@stuartdenton8537]

@@StoryModeOn Thanks for replying. I can't say i've paid particular attention to what quality it picks on auto, but i'm relatively sure it's done other content at 4k60 no problem or takes it down a notch when it can't. It gets a 4 second pause then recovery, but the next instance is the forever-hang. I might try it or the next one at 1440 and see if that runs smoothly. It's just been the only channel i've ever had this quirk with.

[@stuartdenton8537]

@@StoryModeOn 1440p seems to be behaving itself, thanks for the tip :)

[@lawrencephilippasicolan6324]

can you do Before your Eyes next.....pleeeease :))))

[@Nafetskenam]

❤️❤️

[@hamsterpaj111]

Maybe I should try this out again.. never managed to pass 20hours

[@therupoe]

Has there ever been a game besides Mass Effect that carries over your choices from all three games? Only one that's somewhat similar is **maybe** the Walking Dead games from TellTale

[@j.r.1704]

Uh Dragon Age... Zelda Oracle of Ages and Seasons? Maybe Chrono Trigger?

[@therupoe]

@@j.r.1704 oooh also good examples. Its weird how nobody does it anymore, right?

[@thechroniclesofthesuperhob167]

Hello

[@pwl2992]

More videos

[@thekidfromcanada]

It never felt like a choice for me. either save the Krogan and absolve Mordin, or get the Solarians to help build something that won't do anything. endings are important, kids. they validate everything that came before, or render it meaningless.

[@ElkiLG]

It's really not a difficult moral choice, especially because getting enough war assets is not difficult at all and they're never given enough importance in the game, they're very abstract and only affect cutscenes at the end. That is barely a choice at all.

[@Vince009]

Biooooooooshock!

[@TanayVaidya]

This is the part that feels insulting about Mass Effect 3's ending. Clearly this was a team of people that were capable of creating incredible stories within the game itself that allowed your choices to matter. Why that didn't materialise in the actually ending, I will never understand. The biggest relief now is that we know for a fact that Mass Effect 3's ending isn't the full stop we thought it was. Another Mass Effect game is coming that will seemingly tie the Shepard trilogy and Andromeda together in some way. This is, of course, assuming that BioWare doesn't blow it like they did with Anthem. I'm hoping that they won't.

[@johnalver]

Poly-rythmic poly-rythmic poly-rythmic rythmic rythmic

[@KaelJarred]

Do a God of War (2018) analysis :)

[@mikehiebert6227]

Maybe not the most interesting gaming topic they could cover, but I'd totally love to see this. I know Alex was playing GOW(2018) and in one podcast commented on how it gave him an experience he hasn't had in theatres for years. The game has a lot of solid to good writing and really great themes to explore for sure

[@KaelJarred]

@@mikehiebert6227 ooh, what podcast is this?

[@mikehiebert6227]

@@KaelJarred their Beyond The Screenplay podcast! It's available on Spotify and the latest episode was the LFTS team talking to Mark Brown from GMTK about Mass Effect 1

[@danielvolkman4734]

I actually do not think the story is a great mission when it comes to choice. The narrative heavily pushes Krogans as a distraught people. You are meant to fight alongside them and see them as ultimate allies to fight the Reapers. Even if you disagree with that, the narrative pushes in the direction that not curing the genophage and not helping the Krogan is ultimately an evil act. SO while the narrative and this scene are amazing, the act of it being a choice really takes away from it.

[@SomebodyBumbleBee]

I just couldn't get into ME3. I see all the points made in the video and yet I couldn't get past how cheesy everything had become, and not in a good way; like the cliches that seemed to have no self-awareness and the pauses before a character would turn around to speak them. None of the renegade options (that mattered) felt like they actually mattered that much. In the case of the Genophage plotline it just doesn't make any sense why the Krogan are so desperately needed to fight the reapers. Siding with the Salarian Dalatrass is the more sensible choice, from a purely pragmatic POV, but perhaps also when considering that the Krogan are violent by nature and Wrex won't live forever. By curing them you are making them strong enough to dominate the galaxy after the reapers are defeated. This doesn't sound so bad except you beat the reapers not soon after, meaning the curing of the Genophage ultimately had no real impact on the ending. Sure, you can side with the Dalatrass, but the game calls you evil for doing so and the ultimate goal of saving the galaxy isn't affected positively in comparison. From Music, cinematography and to the script, Mass Effect went from being more sci-fi to more soap opera with each game. I doubt the new game in construction will be any detour from this progression.

[@mattyoungau]

I managed to get Mordin killed in ME2, so in the mission is was just some random scientist. Didn’t quite have same effect. Entirely my fault though.

[@StoryModeOn]

(Same for my first play through! -MT)

[@Grimprospect]

Too bad ME3 ended in a three way color choice :(

[@BigBuran]

I hated the Krogan's much like Mordin Solus did. In the end of this mission I was able to pull my gun on Mordin to convince him not to cure the genophage. He agreed and went into hiding becoming a war asset. The Krogans never found out and my ending showed the Krogans dying out. It was incredible.

[@rikumajumder1558]

I just wish EA look hard into their Bioware team and remove those who have a political agenda. Good Writers are the ones who make content who makes stuff that is beyond current affairs and taps into Human psychology in general. We don't need the people who wrote ME: Andromeda.

[@GeezNutz]

Two travesties revealed here: 1) That this channel never got as big as it deserved. This channel deserves a million subs and this video 10x that many views. 2) That so much of the gaming community judge Mass Effect 3 by a controversial last scene instead of praise it as the greatest example of how to provide complex, moral struggles that are dramatically effected and often constrained by decisions the player made in the games before. Where else can you have a narrative experience that so masterfully pays off after 120hrs of living with it? Mass Effect is some of the truest Role Playing ever put into a video game.