Mass Effect 2

Why won’t Joker just freakin’ abandon ship? Commander Shepard is barking out orders that direct everyone to evacuate a clearly besieged Normandy. In fact, stuff is going nuts — panels are short-circuiting in the long corridors, crew members are scuttling around in a state of panic — but for some reason, your trusty pilot is being a pain in the backside by steadfastly refusing to follow his peers to the escape pods. As captain, now’s your time to shine…

With project director Casey Hudson cooing background information and highlights, our attention is completely focused on what’s going on onscreen in front of us. Shepard dashes down the hallways, dodging floating debris wrenched loose by attacking enemy ships. Dramatic camera angles spotlight the chaos going on both inside and outside the Normandy. And when you’re finally able to confront Joker at the ship’s main controls? He’s still not ready to give up his station and claims he wants to go down with the ship. Oh, please. A very, very stern order or two later, and he’s sent packing to the nearest escape pod, leaving you to try to salvage control, attempt to fight back against the enemy, and ensure that the rest of the stragglers are safely jettisoned from the deteriorating ship.

But what happens next, we absolutely didn’t see coming.

Decked out in a leaky, space-walking atmosphere suit, Shepard’s attempts to stave off impending doom are met with…failure. After a few more harrowing moments, you’re tossed straight out of the ship and into the black of zero-G space, where Shepard convulses and…dies. Yikes. Hudson chimes in with an ominous word of warning that yes, death is something that’s very real and can happen if you don’t consider the consequences of your conversations and actions. Case in point, if you didn’t earn enough trust from Joker before the Normandy is attacked, you may want to consider investing in a better space helmet.

While we’re not entirely sure when this scenario plays out in the game and we’re not completely sure that Shepard was 100 percent down for the count from the demo we saw — you can count on one thing. We’re going to jockey to be first in line to find out.