Mass Effect and bug hunts

So uh, reached Peak 15, this underground laboratory that was working on creepy crawly alien thingys. Of course, they all break out and shit hits the fan so you've got these scientists and some security forces holed up with barricades and every once in a while one of the alien bugs will pop out of a grate and try to eat em. Maybe it's just me, but I've got the feeling they were trying to make an Aliens homage with this area. And of course, there's great little touches like how the soldiers have been taking stims to stay awake all the time, and it's adversely affecting their behavior and mindset. Really immersive dialogue. I could spend so much time in this place, it really does feel like they were trying to make an Aliens game in an RPG.

Don't you think it'd be a lot easier if BioWare just didn't have the Paragon/Renegade scale displayed? Then there wouldn't be that annoying habit of trying to go all one way or the other. I was just playing and had to make this huge good/evil choice. My natural response would've been to kill off the Rachni queen. But because that was the "Renegade" option, and I'm trying to go for a full "Paragon" playthrough, I had to pick the other option, which was letting them go.

Because seriously, trying to get the most Paragon points was the only reason I picked that option to let this queen insect go. The Rachni are basically giant space bugs that once almost conquered the galaxy. They're governed by a hive mind, come out of eggs laid by queens... just your standard Alien ripoffs. And here I had the chance to wipe out the last queen. Somehow that was deemed the "evil" choice though.

It's just hard to believe that any rational person in that situation would've been Jesus-like and let that bug go free. Now, this one queen in particular did telepathically communicate with me and say that of course she wasn't going to be like that, she would teach her offspring to exist peacefully, mend their ways, etc. But really, who would just accept the word of this thing? I doubt even Gandhi himself would've been so understanding and trusting of a large space insect. Ya know what, it really reminds me of the TNG episode "I, Borg." Didn't buy Picard's decision in that episode and I don't buy the Paragon choice here.

It was sooo tempting to just hit the Renegade dialogue option and fry the Queen. But BioWare just decided that would be evil and I'd be punished with Renegade points. Seems to me they shouldn't be making judgements in really gray areas like that. I guess I just don't like BioWare pushing their non-genocidal agenda in their games.