Mass Effect 2 Arrival’s Countdown Clock Ends With a Gruesome Vision

Mass Effect 2 has some pretty great DLC, featuring missions that let you explore the remains of your ship, commit a grand heist, and even find out the identity of The Shadow Broker. But while all of those are pretty awesome, there are few missions as imposing as Mass Effect 2 Arrival.

Almost as soon as you engage in this mission, you’ll arrive at a base that features a strange clock counting downwards over the door. When you ask one of the characters in Arrival about it, she states that the Reapers will arrive when the clock reaches zero.

Now, obviously, that sounds pretty scary, as the Reapers are the big bad of the series. However, there is a total of 48 hours to spare, so it isn’t too difficult to complete the mission in that time period, especially since it counts down in real-time.

Out of curiosity, one dedicated Youtuber, Synth, decided to see what happens when you wait the full time for the clock to go down. The results were creepy, as you can see in the video below.

When the clock reaches its end in Mass Effect 2 Arrival, a video plays showing the Reapers arriving and destroying everything. The clip plays just like the Prothean beacon visions from the first game. When you pause the video, there are plenty of interesting shots, including the Illusive Man standing with the crew of The Normandy and the Reapers actually wreaking havoc.

The scariest part comes at the end, as Kelly Chambers provides us with a nice little jump scare, turning toward the camera and screaming as she is seemingly disintegrated. Players are then asked to start over again, just like if they’d had died in any other part of the game.

It is a nice little touch that Bioware added into the game, showing that they weren’t bluffing about the clock. It should also be noted that it actually took 51 hours of real-time to have the clock hit zero, not 48 hours.

If you’re still craving some more Mass Effect content, be sure to check out all of the similar articles listed below. Those include characters too strong to join Shepard’s squad, a Last of Us-inspired Mass Effect comic, and which characters deserve a permanent Virmire vacation.