Well that's what Watch Mojo thinks.
What are your favourites? (Other than humans).
Metrics:
By favourite I mean, according to the criteria that matters to you most.
So maybe a species is your favourite because of their culture, or maybe a species is your favourite according to aesthetics, or maybe it's to do with having met a few individuals of their kind.
I won't be prescriptive here.
I agree with the list, though I would have put the Baterians on the list and made the Volus an honourable mention.
Guest_AugmentedAssassin_*
Class A:
Class B:
Class C:
@Leo8Skylar
What do you mean by Class A, Class B and Class C?
Guest_AugmentedAssassin_*
@Leo8Skylar
What do you mean by Class A, Class B and Class C?
I can't put them in a numeric list because i like some of them equally. So, I used the classes system. A is the class i really like. B is the class that i like. C is the class that i don't like.
I like Asari, Batarian, Krogan and Quarian as my top 4.
Vorcha are right up there just because of Mark Meer. "Prothean no like you."
Quarians
My list
Geth sit at the top of my list for sure. Close followers would be Collectors, Protheans (yes im counting them separate), Quarians, Batarians, Turians, and Vorcha
Guest_StreetMagic_*
This is a tough one.
I guess I'm gonna go with Salarians. I've always liked their sneakiness and shadiness ever since meeting Chorban and the rest of the minor ME1 NPCs. And they don't really pose much threat to humans... they seem easiest to work with, without much direct competition, and where humans and Salarians make up for each other's weaknesses.
You know that's also what I've liked about the Asari, too - their shadiness. I really wish they'd deconstructed the blue space babes trope more like they did with Aethyta, Aria, and Vasir and not made the majority of them dancers or really feminine. Ah, but we always have fan fiction.
Guest_StreetMagic_*
You know that's also what I've liked about the Asari, too - their shadiness. I really wish they'd deconstructed the blue space babes trope more like they did with Aethyta, Aria, and Vasir and not made the majority of them dancers or really feminine. Ah, but we always have fan fiction.
It's a little less endearing to me for some reason. It's not as funny. Instead of Chorban, it's Nassana and Tela Vasir.. Liara's probably the least duplicitous Asari.
Both of them together kick ass though. I like the Eclipse mercs the most.
Favorite species besides human?
Prothean
Chorban was cool. Morlan's Famous Shop - you need many good supplies, yes?
And the Batarians were the whipping boys. They couldn't do anything right. I think the only non-hostile ones were Bray, Anto, and Salkie. Oh and Sgt Cathka. Guy worked too hard.
Krogan
Asari
Geth
Turians
Drell
A lot of that maybe MP bias though.
Asari, bar none. Were my favourite even before started playing MP, have become more favourite since 
Liara is and will stay my favourite NPC of the trilogy.
I liked the geth ever since Legion's introduction. And yeah, the third game may have screwed a little with giving them the Pinocchio complex, but it actually made me like them more. Once again, I started liking them even more since I started dabbling in multiplayer.
Was pretty indifferent to drell before multiplayer, but the adept and vanguard changed that for me as well. If the entire race is as badass as those two, they have to be pretty damn cool.
Turians, because Garrus. Once again, MP and the fat turians only helped to reenforce that. Especially the fat Tsent
I like Wrex, Grunt and warlord. Other than that, I'm pretty indifferent to krogan.
Vorcha are fun and I kinda like them, but wouldn't put them amongst my favourite. The flaming cheese they have going for them certainly doesn't make me like them more. Still think that Shisk is one of the more hilarious guys out there 
Kinda on the same boat with hanar.
So yeah, a lot of MP bias going on here. Given I haven't played SP campaign in more than a year, that's kinda understandable, I guess.
1. Rachni (of course 
)
2. Salarians
3. Batarians
4. Geth (Less so since the whole 'Pinocchio' bit in ME 3)
5. Elcor
6. Hanar
7. Turians
8. Quarians
9. Collectors
10. Reapers
11. Volus
12. Vorcha
13. Drell
14. Leviathans
15. Protheans
16. Asari
17. Varren
18. Humans
1) self explanatory. In additions to my general preferences for the technological cultures, nomads and outcasts, the quarians are the most biologically, culturally unique, diverse and innovative of the humanoid races in this setting IMO, and I love every single one of them (yes, especially the much maligned Daro'Xen and Han'Gerrel). I figure the fact that opinions on the quarians seem to be divided between love and loathe is good evidence that they were well written. Despite there only being 17 million of them, they managed to look the least mono-cultured of anyone that wasn't the (obviously cliche) special snowflake humans (including being the only other anthropomorphic race to get equal representation between the sexes).
2) Salarians: I like the salarians as well, mostly because of a preference for the science over might types as with the quarians. Unfortunately, we didn't get to explore the impacts of their unique amphibian biology upon their culture so much beyond a few conversations with Mordin and a sidequest, but I like most of the characters this race gave us from Mordin to Kirrahe and Wiks. The only thing that brings them down is their participation in the exclusive, oligarchical political structure of the Citadel Council.
Most of the others I like mildly or am indifferent to. Some of them have potential that hasn't been explored yet, so I still have trouble as viewing them as anything but stereotypical tropes (Militarists, Brutes, Insectoids, alien space babes etc.), but don't dislike them. Others seem to be comic relief at this point (hanar, volus, vorcha, elcor etc.), which though I admit to laughing at, don't think that they bring much to the setting by remaining in their current form as punchlines.
Synthetics I don't view as a "race." The geth themselves and EDI were interesting and moderately innovative before the 3rd game where they became pinnochios and Commander Datas, and the writers tried to retcon their violent histories with gratuitous feels, ruining their particular story arc in the process. I subsequently eye rolled and lost literally all interest in them. I try to separate their characterization from the obvious intent of the writers to push their own Kurzweilian views of Artificial Intelligences as anthropomorphic living beings through them.
Guest_StreetMagic_*
1) self explanatory. In additions to my general preferences for the technological cultures, nomads and outcasts, the quarians are the most biologically, culturally unique, diverse and innovative of the humanoid races in this setting IMO, and I love every single one of them (yes, especially the much maligned Daro'Xen and Han'Gerrel). I figure the fact that opinions on the quarians seem to be divided between love and loathe is good evidence that they were well written. Despite there only being 17 million of them, they managed to look the least mono-cultured of anyone that wasn't the (obviously cliche) special snowflake humans (including being the only other anthropomorphic race to get equal representation between the sexes).
Pffft. Xen and Garrel are cool... no matter what the games try to tell me. I hate to say it, but I kind of like them more than Tali... if only because she's a bit like Raan in not taking much of a stance. She's cool with anything, but the other two are clear symbols for destroy and control. Rannoch tries to push hard the idea of tolerance and mlddle ways being the most ideal (much like the final ending), and Tali gets swallowed up a bit in it.
Quarians are probably somewhere in my top 5.
edit: I guess I should correct this in saying Tali is different without Legion around.
Reeger is my favorite. I do prefer Xen over Tali. I like her dialogue better during the dreadnought mission.
Pffft. Xen and Garrel are cool... no matter what the games try to tell me. I hate to say it, but I kind of like them more than Tali... if only because she's a bit like Raan in not taking much of a stance. She's cool with anything, but the other two are clear symbols for destroy and control. Rannoch tries to push hard the idea of tolerance and mlddle ways being the most ideal (much like the final ending), and Tali gets swallowed up a bit in it.
Quarians are probably somewhere in my top 5.
edit: I guess I should correct this in saying Tali is different without Legion around.
Well then you've more willingness to think critically than most to see when you're being sold something. Gerrel's personality change from 2 to 3 was just an obvious example of character assassination. We also essentially get autodialouged into viewing Xen as a crazy person because of her opinions of AI's (no real options to show support for her initiatives but plenty of opportunities to bash them), even though in the real world hers are actually similar to the majority of current experts in the field.
I find it hard to say I like them more simply because Tali has the benefit of about 2.5 games full of characterization, whereas say Xen or Gerrel only have a few apperances in their own arcs. Xen would probably be a safe bet, I love her and would probably have recruited her over Tali in a second given the oppourtunity. Eccentric, direct geniuses with no concern for contrived social graces are my thing. It's actually one of my greatest criticsms that the renegade "peace" option outcome to Rannoch should have resulted in the quarians regaining control of the geth as she wanted, because I don't really agree with any of the other 3 options as much. It would have fit with the other themes of the game (control) as well.
Tali does take a stance though. You have to ask her about the geth in ME1, but she's essentially in the same boat as Gerrel and her father. She thinks that because the geth have no use for organics that it is inherently dangerous for them to be allowed to continue existing in their current state, as well as harboring a socially ingrained animosity towards them typical of most members of the species. On the other hand she seems to also be a bit more cautious than Gerrel, a bit like Shala in that she is more concerned with the safety of the Fleet than scrapping the geth before the quarians have the capability to do so, and whatever end attains that means she is fine with. That's probably why she can be convinced to modify her stance to one that is similar (though still not quite as accepting judging by her post Rannoch lines if peace is chosen) as Zaal'Koris's via interactions with Legion.
Reeger is my favorite. I do prefer Xen over Tali. I like her dialogue better during the dreadnought mission.
Reegar could have been a great companion. He's one of those types that deconstructs the trope of his species, a bit like Fortack, Atheya or Kirrahe do for theirs. I'd have loved to have had him as an option for the crew in ME2, as because he's a simple soldier from a common family he'd have offered a different perspective than Tali, who is in addition to being typically ingenious (given the species Hat) at engineering is also essentially the quarian equivalent of royalty.
I'd have taken him over Garrus in a second if he performed essentially the same role, but I'm biased.
I'd have taken him over Garrus in a second if he performed essentially the same role, but I'm biased.
That wouldn't bother me if that were to of happened
I am fan of any of the species that get away from the humanoid / 'human in a rubber suit' motif, but of course those are the species that get the least amount of screen time or development. 
I liked the ME 2 version of Legion and the Geth, but after the third game, I don't find them very interesting and would rank them below the Asari as far as interesting goes.
The Krogan are Mass Effect's version of the Klingons to me, and I never really found them interesting either. It also really didn't help that there was an obvious agenda in ME 3 to get you to side with the Krogan and cure the Genophage, despite some valid reasons why that might not be a good idea. Plus, it really seems hypocritical to me that Wrex (the mascot of his species) condemns the Rachni to death for their sins, but won't tolerate the same attitudes against his people even though the Krogan (arguably) did more damage to the galaxy in their rebellion than they did, and unlike the Rachni the Krogan aren't in anyway apologetic for their actions.
Really, the Rachni, Elcor, and Hanar are the most appealing to me, but 2/3 of those species are the setting's joke races, and the other one is either killed off or shoved off screen never to be heard to seen from again (outside of one slide that you can only get if you sabotage the cure).
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