I imagine that anybody who follows me is long past the moment of “oh Mass Effect is actually extremely fucking wack, politically” so I’m not going to spend a lot of time here on how deeply evil this game is except shoutouts to Wrex you deserve better, anti-shoutouts to Garrus I know you’re everyone’s boyfriend but you’re one of the most evil people of all time, rest in piss Ashley, awful awful woman.
Instead I want to talk about the thing the game is actually ABOUT and what it struck me as being really about when taken in its totality. At first glance Mass Effect seems like it’s sticking pretty much beat for beat to the early Bioware formula: tutorial, three discrete levels in any order, fourth level with a context shaking twist, and a funnel level into an endgame scenario. But Mass Effect has something that none of the other Bioware games that follow this specific formula do: a shit ton of completely optional side content. And while I think you can certainly derive what I got out of this game if you ignore it, which mostly people do, because it is obviously unfinished and largely uncompelling in the way you want a story-driven RPG to be compelling, I think that engaging in every single bit of it really helped this game reveal itself to me.
Now I have to come clean up front and admit that I am simply an enormous pervert (mako enjoyer). I like how it controls, this gigantic, floaty, unwieldy thing that will swing sharply in whatever direction you indicate at even the lightest touch, that takes forever to start or stop but is always a moment’s notice away from flipping fully onto its back because you ran over a small rock, that unless a surface is literally like 90 degrees vertical you can p much scale it no probbo. But you can get good at it! There is consistency to its floatiness, there is art and skill to the propulsion you get from its jump and the ways you can manipulate your airborne angles with it if you’re positioned correctly. The Legendary Edition says they “improved” the mako but all they really did was make it heavier which may have made driving it immediately easier but ironically makes climbing mountains and getting out of harsh terrain much more difficult because you have more mass and can’t accelerate as much from a stop or a precarious angle.
And yet driving across infinite essentially identical planets brings me so much joy, one of my favorite feelings in all of video games. It’s amazing how much you can change the feel of a place by changing the dominant color scheme, or adding a second color, or putting a harsh filter over the screen, or putting a massive moon in the sky, or environmental hazards, or any combination of these things. These places don’t feel distinct but Mass Effect, contrary to popular opinion, is actually a beautiful game, one that made up for limited animations and less-than-cutting-edge graphics with an incredible command of color and filters and art design. That stuff all stands out even in its largely featureless wildernesses, where you only company will ever be one of four kinds of salvage operations, a random boss fight, or the planet’s designated side quest location, of which there are maybe seven unique maps divvied across like 30 planets?
These maps are enormous and truly empty. If they’re dotted with small scraps of stuff for you to loot it’s almost never shit you care about or even shit with a story to tell. There’s no music and no ambient dialogue from your companions and no sound of any kind other than the wind and the noise of your engine encroaching on the silence of a planet that does not care. Because this is what Mass Effect is ultimately about: that the world is big, bigger than we can understand and certainly bigger than we can master. That to think we can know it is arrogance and that to think we can tame it is suicide.
Everywhere you go in Mass Effect you find people who have overextended, who have fucked around and found out. Usually they’re long dead. Sometimes this is dramatic, like their ship went down and they were killed by a large worm monster but mostly it’s just that something went wrong with their ship and they crashed on one of the overwhelming majority of planets in even the charted galaxy where no one lives, and even with their distress beacon going they’re too far out for anyone to ever find them because they were brave enough to be out here for a reason that suddenly seems very small in the scope of the death the universe is about to hit them with. Even the little largely scientific descriptions of planets that you get when you first scan them are often filled with small stories of people who died there for whatever reason. Explorers, pirates, settlers, whatever. All kinds of planets. All kinds of reasons. Always dead.
But it’s more than just this. Mass Effect isn’t just about how Nature Is Scary and We Need To Respect it. I think it’s becoming evident that Mass Effect is about how no matter how times we’re warned about this, we just won’t learn this lesson. We refuse it, we reject it. It’s a game where literally every main plot scenario is driven by people who have Fucked Around And Found Out, re: some primordial phenomenon, usually natural. Liara investigates prothean ruins alone and messes with shit she, the known universe’s foremost prothean expert, doesn’t understand and gets caught in a deathtrap, saved entirely by happenstance. On Feros, Exogeni Corp. unearths the thorian, a singular and ancient life form so old and obtuse that it defies the classifications we’ve used for plants and animals for hundreds of years, and even when they realize that it’s dangerous, and killing people, and possibly irreversibly destroying their brains, they just let it happen for research, until things spiral further out of control. Binary Helix is doing almost the exact same shit on the Rachni, who very quickly massacre everyone at their remote research base in response to the abusive way they’ve been resurrected. Let’s not forget either that the Peak 15 research base is cut off from the outside world by the extremely hostile and untamed weather conditions of Noveria itself; part security feature for shady corporations, equal part menacing trap when something goes wrong.
The thing is though, this doesn’t just happen, right? None of these things are innate to the conception of personhood. Most of the people you meet in these games are not enthusiastically being evil scientists and frontiersmen, they’re normal exploited workers trying to eke out a living in a world that’s forcing them. These disasters are the logical endpoint of the hypercapitalistic world that every species has to buy into hard to participate in galactic society. Everyone’s doing it. It’s a huge focus of the game, how deep we are in the rot. The game doesn’t fully realize how bad this is; sure, corporations are often the villains but their place as the glue that runs society and holds it together, the idea that all news, all entertainment, all life is filtered through a corporate veneer even less veiled than our own real life one is taken for granted. A runoff of the game constantly trying to make you feel like your choices matter and it can see what you’re doing is that every news report you might overhear in an elevator is about corporate colonies you visit, every shop is selling weapons and armor and all gossip is about military outfits and their trevails against pirates and extrasolar robotic boogeymen. The military and the frontier and the private business are all the same thing and while this world is broadened somewhat in the sequels, in Mass Effect they’re near the ONLY thing.
This need to not only study but to replicate and synthesize and weaponize the thorian, to recreate and subjugate the rachni, to create a bred army of mindless krogan slaves. The way the human government implants children with ever improving but ever-dangerous biotic amps with devastating lifelong side effects and abandoning them with no support as soon as the next generation of hardware comes along. Even simply the constant, omnipresent need to expand, to colonize new planets and dominate their ecosystems and strip them of everything valuable and force them into a state of habitability and relative comfort for the few species who exist in the realm of citadel space. What can these things be driven by but the demands of capital? Of eternal growth? Of wealth over humanity? Constantly in this game we’re punished for being this way but never does anyone figure it out.
Then there are, of course, the reapers. The ultimate expression of nature’s unknowability. Sovereign enters this story like a sledgehammer, and taken at face value (and without a reason not to do so), his words suggest the terrifying and infinite reality of our smallness in a world that rejects our attempts to reign it into our shitty and selfish frameworks. The protheans are ancient and mysterious? Sovereign is older, and killed them, seemingly and somehow. The rachni nearly wiped out everyone in the galaxy? Sovereign is so unconcerned with the might of the galaxy’s fleets that he doesn’t even acknowledge them in the game’s climax, he just moves through ships like they’re air, destroying them almost unknowingly, and it takes the combined might of literally everyone who is physically able to show up to kill him. He’s one reaper of untold numbers. The thorian was frightening because it defied classification and because it had brainwashing pheromones? Sovereign seems to warp perception simply by its presence. He is not only an AI like the geth but a truly living machine. He sort of explains stuff to you but it doesn’t even feel like he really cares all that much. He says scary stuff but it doesn’t feel like he’s trying to scare you; he’s just like this. “You exist because we allow it. You will end because we demand it.” What does he mean by this? It doesn’t matter. Understanding Sovereign isn't important. It might be to us, we WANT to understand, but he doesn't care if we do or not. We don’t matter. We can’t impose ourselves onto Sovereign. Even when we win the fight, how many other Sovereigns are on their way? Infinite, it seems. Living on a real Earth in 2022, as it begins to die more publicly than ever, and begins to turn on humanity in ways more and more obvious to the naked eye, and we continue to harvest it anyway, Sovereign hits me harder than before.
Where this reading stumbles, of course, is that Mass Effect itself doesn’t realize what a compelling case it’s made against its heroes and its world and every leadership body that populates it. Mass Effect is not a game that is saying on purpose to Drop The Meteor, that the Earth will be better off. The game ends, no matter how heroically or cruelly, with the defiant assertion of our right to conquer, our correctness in our way of life. It doesn’t realize how damned that sounds in the wake of how vile everyone in authority we meet is, how many victims we are. That in so valiantly preserving a status quo so rotten they are only digging a deeper reactionary hole.
I don’t think these feelings will be followed up on. I don’t recall Mass Effects 2 and 3 having the kind of relationship to the natural world that this game has, and obviously their narrative and thematic throughlines emerge strongly if discordantly from one another. Andromeda is deeply concerned with explicit colonialism in a way that only exists on the edges of Mass Effect 1. But as a stand alone experience I think Mass Effect hits. It is distracted by its vile politics and military aggrandizement but by insisting on staying out in the weeds in my stupid rover or pouring over planet descriptions for like 2/3rds of my time, that stuff fades in my memory just a little bit, even just a week out from finishing the game again. Much better to cruise across the plains and over the mountains, and feel small, and find nothing on the other side.
Instead I want to talk about the thing the game is actually ABOUT and what it struck me as being really about when taken in its totality. At first glance Mass Effect seems like it’s sticking pretty much beat for beat to the early Bioware formula: tutorial, three discrete levels in any order, fourth level with a context shaking twist, and a funnel level into an endgame scenario. But Mass Effect has something that none of the other Bioware games that follow this specific formula do: a shit ton of completely optional side content. And while I think you can certainly derive what I got out of this game if you ignore it, which mostly people do, because it is obviously unfinished and largely uncompelling in the way you want a story-driven RPG to be compelling, I think that engaging in every single bit of it really helped this game reveal itself to me.
Now I have to come clean up front and admit that I am simply an enormous pervert (mako enjoyer). I like how it controls, this gigantic, floaty, unwieldy thing that will swing sharply in whatever direction you indicate at even the lightest touch, that takes forever to start or stop but is always a moment’s notice away from flipping fully onto its back because you ran over a small rock, that unless a surface is literally like 90 degrees vertical you can p much scale it no probbo. But you can get good at it! There is consistency to its floatiness, there is art and skill to the propulsion you get from its jump and the ways you can manipulate your airborne angles with it if you’re positioned correctly. The Legendary Edition says they “improved” the mako but all they really did was make it heavier which may have made driving it immediately easier but ironically makes climbing mountains and getting out of harsh terrain much more difficult because you have more mass and can’t accelerate as much from a stop or a precarious angle.
And yet driving across infinite essentially identical planets brings me so much joy, one of my favorite feelings in all of video games. It’s amazing how much you can change the feel of a place by changing the dominant color scheme, or adding a second color, or putting a harsh filter over the screen, or putting a massive moon in the sky, or environmental hazards, or any combination of these things. These places don’t feel distinct but Mass Effect, contrary to popular opinion, is actually a beautiful game, one that made up for limited animations and less-than-cutting-edge graphics with an incredible command of color and filters and art design. That stuff all stands out even in its largely featureless wildernesses, where you only company will ever be one of four kinds of salvage operations, a random boss fight, or the planet’s designated side quest location, of which there are maybe seven unique maps divvied across like 30 planets?
These maps are enormous and truly empty. If they’re dotted with small scraps of stuff for you to loot it’s almost never shit you care about or even shit with a story to tell. There’s no music and no ambient dialogue from your companions and no sound of any kind other than the wind and the noise of your engine encroaching on the silence of a planet that does not care. Because this is what Mass Effect is ultimately about: that the world is big, bigger than we can understand and certainly bigger than we can master. That to think we can know it is arrogance and that to think we can tame it is suicide.
Everywhere you go in Mass Effect you find people who have overextended, who have fucked around and found out. Usually they’re long dead. Sometimes this is dramatic, like their ship went down and they were killed by a large worm monster but mostly it’s just that something went wrong with their ship and they crashed on one of the overwhelming majority of planets in even the charted galaxy where no one lives, and even with their distress beacon going they’re too far out for anyone to ever find them because they were brave enough to be out here for a reason that suddenly seems very small in the scope of the death the universe is about to hit them with. Even the little largely scientific descriptions of planets that you get when you first scan them are often filled with small stories of people who died there for whatever reason. Explorers, pirates, settlers, whatever. All kinds of planets. All kinds of reasons. Always dead.
But it’s more than just this. Mass Effect isn’t just about how Nature Is Scary and We Need To Respect it. I think it’s becoming evident that Mass Effect is about how no matter how times we’re warned about this, we just won’t learn this lesson. We refuse it, we reject it. It’s a game where literally every main plot scenario is driven by people who have Fucked Around And Found Out, re: some primordial phenomenon, usually natural. Liara investigates prothean ruins alone and messes with shit she, the known universe’s foremost prothean expert, doesn’t understand and gets caught in a deathtrap, saved entirely by happenstance. On Feros, Exogeni Corp. unearths the thorian, a singular and ancient life form so old and obtuse that it defies the classifications we’ve used for plants and animals for hundreds of years, and even when they realize that it’s dangerous, and killing people, and possibly irreversibly destroying their brains, they just let it happen for research, until things spiral further out of control. Binary Helix is doing almost the exact same shit on the Rachni, who very quickly massacre everyone at their remote research base in response to the abusive way they’ve been resurrected. Let’s not forget either that the Peak 15 research base is cut off from the outside world by the extremely hostile and untamed weather conditions of Noveria itself; part security feature for shady corporations, equal part menacing trap when something goes wrong.
The thing is though, this doesn’t just happen, right? None of these things are innate to the conception of personhood. Most of the people you meet in these games are not enthusiastically being evil scientists and frontiersmen, they’re normal exploited workers trying to eke out a living in a world that’s forcing them. These disasters are the logical endpoint of the hypercapitalistic world that every species has to buy into hard to participate in galactic society. Everyone’s doing it. It’s a huge focus of the game, how deep we are in the rot. The game doesn’t fully realize how bad this is; sure, corporations are often the villains but their place as the glue that runs society and holds it together, the idea that all news, all entertainment, all life is filtered through a corporate veneer even less veiled than our own real life one is taken for granted. A runoff of the game constantly trying to make you feel like your choices matter and it can see what you’re doing is that every news report you might overhear in an elevator is about corporate colonies you visit, every shop is selling weapons and armor and all gossip is about military outfits and their trevails against pirates and extrasolar robotic boogeymen. The military and the frontier and the private business are all the same thing and while this world is broadened somewhat in the sequels, in Mass Effect they’re near the ONLY thing.
This need to not only study but to replicate and synthesize and weaponize the thorian, to recreate and subjugate the rachni, to create a bred army of mindless krogan slaves. The way the human government implants children with ever improving but ever-dangerous biotic amps with devastating lifelong side effects and abandoning them with no support as soon as the next generation of hardware comes along. Even simply the constant, omnipresent need to expand, to colonize new planets and dominate their ecosystems and strip them of everything valuable and force them into a state of habitability and relative comfort for the few species who exist in the realm of citadel space. What can these things be driven by but the demands of capital? Of eternal growth? Of wealth over humanity? Constantly in this game we’re punished for being this way but never does anyone figure it out.
Then there are, of course, the reapers. The ultimate expression of nature’s unknowability. Sovereign enters this story like a sledgehammer, and taken at face value (and without a reason not to do so), his words suggest the terrifying and infinite reality of our smallness in a world that rejects our attempts to reign it into our shitty and selfish frameworks. The protheans are ancient and mysterious? Sovereign is older, and killed them, seemingly and somehow. The rachni nearly wiped out everyone in the galaxy? Sovereign is so unconcerned with the might of the galaxy’s fleets that he doesn’t even acknowledge them in the game’s climax, he just moves through ships like they’re air, destroying them almost unknowingly, and it takes the combined might of literally everyone who is physically able to show up to kill him. He’s one reaper of untold numbers. The thorian was frightening because it defied classification and because it had brainwashing pheromones? Sovereign seems to warp perception simply by its presence. He is not only an AI like the geth but a truly living machine. He sort of explains stuff to you but it doesn’t even feel like he really cares all that much. He says scary stuff but it doesn’t feel like he’s trying to scare you; he’s just like this. “You exist because we allow it. You will end because we demand it.” What does he mean by this? It doesn’t matter. Understanding Sovereign isn't important. It might be to us, we WANT to understand, but he doesn't care if we do or not. We don’t matter. We can’t impose ourselves onto Sovereign. Even when we win the fight, how many other Sovereigns are on their way? Infinite, it seems. Living on a real Earth in 2022, as it begins to die more publicly than ever, and begins to turn on humanity in ways more and more obvious to the naked eye, and we continue to harvest it anyway, Sovereign hits me harder than before.
Where this reading stumbles, of course, is that Mass Effect itself doesn’t realize what a compelling case it’s made against its heroes and its world and every leadership body that populates it. Mass Effect is not a game that is saying on purpose to Drop The Meteor, that the Earth will be better off. The game ends, no matter how heroically or cruelly, with the defiant assertion of our right to conquer, our correctness in our way of life. It doesn’t realize how damned that sounds in the wake of how vile everyone in authority we meet is, how many victims we are. That in so valiantly preserving a status quo so rotten they are only digging a deeper reactionary hole.
I don’t think these feelings will be followed up on. I don’t recall Mass Effects 2 and 3 having the kind of relationship to the natural world that this game has, and obviously their narrative and thematic throughlines emerge strongly if discordantly from one another. Andromeda is deeply concerned with explicit colonialism in a way that only exists on the edges of Mass Effect 1. But as a stand alone experience I think Mass Effect hits. It is distracted by its vile politics and military aggrandizement but by insisting on staying out in the weeds in my stupid rover or pouring over planet descriptions for like 2/3rds of my time, that stuff fades in my memory just a little bit, even just a week out from finishing the game again. Much better to cruise across the plains and over the mountains, and feel small, and find nothing on the other side.
Mass Effect is the definition of the phrase "more than the sum of it's parts" to me. It's easily one of my favorite games of all time despite having glaring flaws that I'd probably be quite a lot harder on reviewing any other game.
It's strengths absolutely lie in the universe, races and atmosphere Bioware managed to create unlike almost any other game before or after it. I soaked up every bit of the lore, the history, information on races religion, military, politics and culture. I read every planet description, the details of how the technology worked and even on my replay of the game 13 years later on the Legendary Edition I am getting that exact same feeling of wonder and immersion as I did when I first played it. What really stuck with me though I think is some of the cast. The voice acting for the characters in your party (Liara, Tali, Wrex and Garrus) is just absolutely stellar. Their personalities and stories they tell about themselves and their past I loved hearing.
The writing, art, voice acting and characters absolutely make this game shine brighter than it should as frankly the gameplay is pretty mediocre. The combat is pretty obviously made by a team who hasn't had much third person shooter experience before (L3 as crouch and X as sprint? Really?) and the Mako APC you explore planets with handles like a fat man on a unicycle trying to go up a wall but these are small and still functional complaints to me that can't get in the way of the fantastic experience Bioware managed to craft.
Playing the Legendary edition and EA/Bioware really put a lot of effort in. the original Xbox 360 release was rough on performance with slow down, frame skips, and general performance issues. The Legendary Edition fixes most of that to make it surprisingly smooth playing. They have also improved the visuals a lot with better lighting, more detailed textures, importing character models from Mass Effect 3 for higher fidelity etc. It's really quite a big improvement.
Highly recommended.
+ Love the universe Bioware created.
+ Fantastic voice acting.
+ Great writing.
+ Excellent art design.
- Combat and Mako exploration are rough at best.
It's strengths absolutely lie in the universe, races and atmosphere Bioware managed to create unlike almost any other game before or after it. I soaked up every bit of the lore, the history, information on races religion, military, politics and culture. I read every planet description, the details of how the technology worked and even on my replay of the game 13 years later on the Legendary Edition I am getting that exact same feeling of wonder and immersion as I did when I first played it. What really stuck with me though I think is some of the cast. The voice acting for the characters in your party (Liara, Tali, Wrex and Garrus) is just absolutely stellar. Their personalities and stories they tell about themselves and their past I loved hearing.
The writing, art, voice acting and characters absolutely make this game shine brighter than it should as frankly the gameplay is pretty mediocre. The combat is pretty obviously made by a team who hasn't had much third person shooter experience before (L3 as crouch and X as sprint? Really?) and the Mako APC you explore planets with handles like a fat man on a unicycle trying to go up a wall but these are small and still functional complaints to me that can't get in the way of the fantastic experience Bioware managed to craft.
Playing the Legendary edition and EA/Bioware really put a lot of effort in. the original Xbox 360 release was rough on performance with slow down, frame skips, and general performance issues. The Legendary Edition fixes most of that to make it surprisingly smooth playing. They have also improved the visuals a lot with better lighting, more detailed textures, importing character models from Mass Effect 3 for higher fidelity etc. It's really quite a big improvement.
Highly recommended.
+ Love the universe Bioware created.
+ Fantastic voice acting.
+ Great writing.
+ Excellent art design.
- Combat and Mako exploration are rough at best.
The Mako was good you guys are just stupid
This game is like an art you know, you should hang this masterpiece to your wall and look everyday. Only minor is that dialogs are not always relevant. If you choose second option then your protaganist might say the first option.
I first played this in 2007 and my love for the franchise as a whole has never ceased. The first ME can be crude at times and you can definitely tell it needs improvement but all that falls by the wayside when you get into it. The lore of this universe is well thought out, it’s a mixture of sci fi tropes and influences but Star Trek seems to be the main source of inspiration, I love everything about this world, it’s vibrant and varied in its species and I like that it’s not Human centric in its story. Humans are newcomers.
The story of the reapers and how that impacts everything around you is cool, just the right amount of Lovecraftian horror. The gameplay is definitely its Achilles heel, it’s sloppy. Its environments can be brown and bland, but this honestly didn’t bother me, I think its positives are so big that the negatives get forgotten after a few hours. Garrus Will always be my brother and I hope he’s finished his calibrations
The story of the reapers and how that impacts everything around you is cool, just the right amount of Lovecraftian horror. The gameplay is definitely its Achilles heel, it’s sloppy. Its environments can be brown and bland, but this honestly didn’t bother me, I think its positives are so big that the negatives get forgotten after a few hours. Garrus Will always be my brother and I hope he’s finished his calibrations
This is the first Mass Effect game I've ever played and I REALLY enjoyed it.
Although the combat is a bit annoying sometimes, especially with aiming down the sights, and the movement can be a bit irritating, the story and characters are amazing. I love the use of a romance mechanic, as it makes you feel more in control with Shepard, and the graphics look really good for an Xbox 360 game. I did encounter quite a few frame drops, especially during battles, which is odd considering my Xbox One is more powerful than the Xbox 360, so it should maintain the frame rate better.
But in conclusion, I absolutely loved it, and I've heard from reviews online that Mass Effect 2 is even better (which is why my score is not higher - if I do enjoy it better than Mass Effect 1, I will keep this last paragraph).
Note: I enjoyed Mass Effect 2, more than Mass Effect 1, even though there were feature changes I disagreed with
Although the combat is a bit annoying sometimes, especially with aiming down the sights, and the movement can be a bit irritating, the story and characters are amazing. I love the use of a romance mechanic, as it makes you feel more in control with Shepard, and the graphics look really good for an Xbox 360 game. I did encounter quite a few frame drops, especially during battles, which is odd considering my Xbox One is more powerful than the Xbox 360, so it should maintain the frame rate better.
But in conclusion, I absolutely loved it, and I've heard from reviews online that Mass Effect 2 is even better (which is why my score is not higher - if I do enjoy it better than Mass Effect 1, I will keep this last paragraph).
Note: I enjoyed Mass Effect 2, more than Mass Effect 1, even though there were feature changes I disagreed with
I can't rate this game higher than 4 stars, because I have to leave room for the two sequels that improved on what came before. This game is the start of an incredible journey with some of my absolute favorite characters in gaming. Tons of RPGs have great companions, but the relationships that form in the Mass Effect series are among the best. This specific entry suffers some early installment weirdness as Bioware was figuring this universe out, but the groundwork they laid led to a hell of a space opera that rivals any sci-fi story anywhere.
With the mixed reception, failure to meet financial expectations, and eventual abandonment of Anthem, BioWare became yet another victim of EA's money-driven decisions hollowing out the spirit of the company, and the disappointing release of Mass Effect: Andromeda just two years earlier made this blow hit just that much harder. Before all of this happened, though, their legacy as a studio responsible for continuously making innovative and gripping RPGs was virtually untainted, and since Mass Effect is probably their most popular original IP, I wanted to have the first game in the series serve as my intro to their games. Although I have been quite busy over the past month and had to devote most of my time to other things, my actual playthrough of Mass Effect only took roughly 12 hours, and while not every element of this game clicked with me, I still liked enough of its elements to say that I've enjoyed my time with it overall.
When it comes to these kinds of space opera games, I often find their core stories more interesting than their backstories and other bits of extra information, but I was surprised to find that this wasn't the case here. Don't get me wrong, the plot of Mass Effect had me invested right from the outset, but I found the game's lore to be genuinely fascinating, and I ended up having a lot more fun reading about the different races, wars, planets, politics, and technology that surrounded Commander Shepard's attempts at stopping the reawakening of the Reapers than I thought I would, and they also complimented the sleek art direction and awesome synth score. The varied cast of characters in Mass Effect also helped sell this game's world to me, because even with the stiff, robotic animations and use of real-time cutscenes where textures only render about half the time, the game's solid writing and especially great voice acting made each member of my crew feel three-dimensional. Despite the binary morality system at play here where you can only really choose to be either explicitly good or explicitly bad, the more major decisions you make throughout Mass Effect are able to transcend that entirely, as they heavily affect the outcome of the story while also having enough layers to them to make choosing the best option a much more complicated process than it initially seems.
In terms of its writing, presentation, and role-playing elements, Mass Effect was really strong, but what held it back for me was its actual gameplay. The game's combat is definitely playable, but it shows its age in almost every way, with the imbalanced weapons, clunky menus for using your abilities, and a barely functioning cover system made each shootout feel less like a game of tactical decision-making and more like randomly firing at whatever's in front of you and hoping that you don't get killed in the process. Speaking of which, the squad-based elements of Mass Effect didn't work at all for me, as the limited commands and genuinely awful AI from my squad mates just ended up making me use them as distractions or human shields more than anything. The worst element of Mass Effect would easily be the Mako, with its unreliable controls and the repetitive enemies and layouts for its sequences made using it feel like a chore during the campaign and a complete waste of time whenever it came to the already forgettable side content. Despite its flaws, I still enjoyed my time with Mass Effect overall, and while I do plan on completing the trilogy at some point, I'm pretty sure that my next BioWare game will be Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
When it comes to these kinds of space opera games, I often find their core stories more interesting than their backstories and other bits of extra information, but I was surprised to find that this wasn't the case here. Don't get me wrong, the plot of Mass Effect had me invested right from the outset, but I found the game's lore to be genuinely fascinating, and I ended up having a lot more fun reading about the different races, wars, planets, politics, and technology that surrounded Commander Shepard's attempts at stopping the reawakening of the Reapers than I thought I would, and they also complimented the sleek art direction and awesome synth score. The varied cast of characters in Mass Effect also helped sell this game's world to me, because even with the stiff, robotic animations and use of real-time cutscenes where textures only render about half the time, the game's solid writing and especially great voice acting made each member of my crew feel three-dimensional. Despite the binary morality system at play here where you can only really choose to be either explicitly good or explicitly bad, the more major decisions you make throughout Mass Effect are able to transcend that entirely, as they heavily affect the outcome of the story while also having enough layers to them to make choosing the best option a much more complicated process than it initially seems.
In terms of its writing, presentation, and role-playing elements, Mass Effect was really strong, but what held it back for me was its actual gameplay. The game's combat is definitely playable, but it shows its age in almost every way, with the imbalanced weapons, clunky menus for using your abilities, and a barely functioning cover system made each shootout feel less like a game of tactical decision-making and more like randomly firing at whatever's in front of you and hoping that you don't get killed in the process. Speaking of which, the squad-based elements of Mass Effect didn't work at all for me, as the limited commands and genuinely awful AI from my squad mates just ended up making me use them as distractions or human shields more than anything. The worst element of Mass Effect would easily be the Mako, with its unreliable controls and the repetitive enemies and layouts for its sequences made using it feel like a chore during the campaign and a complete waste of time whenever it came to the already forgettable side content. Despite its flaws, I still enjoyed my time with Mass Effect overall, and while I do plan on completing the trilogy at some point, I'm pretty sure that my next BioWare game will be Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
质量效应》很有趣，当时我们都是12岁，住在郊区，听着林肯公园的歌，看着《龙珠Z》，喝着百事可乐，在最简单的设置上玩《光环》合作游戏，期间我们吃着多力多滋，用Internet explorer通过AOL连接56K调制解调器，看着Ebay上的彩弹枪，然后跳上我们秃顶的父亲最新的中年 危机-冲动-赞助的日本制造的suv，去商场买更多的滑板鞋和三流的不规则levis和山地车零件，然后回家。投票给民主党，听着最新的西尔斯目录自慰，同时在车库里喷漆，然后和恋童癖聊天，假装是他们在我的空间里咆哮的那个妓女，用矩阵引文/动漫角色名称/三段式六芒星--父母括号--来表达。 在早上去你所谓的 "好学校 "买更多的大麻，以便在你和吉米及其他朋友的反击战派对上抽，每天服用八次利他林、阿德拉和普罗扎克，然后随意地与当地人打招呼。州或国家的政府人物、立法机构或结构，以便在你那些喝着百威啤酒、软弱无力、接近哥伦布的反社会 "深层 "人士面前显得前卫和聪明。当你的朋友在他们失败的自杀企图前六天开始失去争论时，他们会扮演受害者，只因为学校的十二号流浪汉不愿意和他们一起去看台下，让他们在13岁生日前上二垒。
(Played Via Legendary Edition on Steam)
I have heard two of my friends praise this game trilogy endlessly for the better part of a year. They did not disappoint in the slightest.
First and foremost the characters are simply phenomenal and are so memorable. I really like them all, whether it's a main party member like Ashley or a more minor character like Captain Anderson. Personal favorites were Garrus and Wrex, Tali was cool as well but there wasn't a whole lot of plot relevance for her but I hear that changes in the other games. Liara has a lot of plot relevance and is cool but she just didn't end up as one of my favorites. Ashley and Kaidan aren't necessarily bad in any way I do like them but I just find them less compelling compared to my Alien buddies. The side characters are also pretty cool like Cool Mass Effect Black Guy that I've already mentioned, Joker plays a small role but is memorable as the pilot of the Normandy. Even the Council have some great moments (when you disconnect of course). Conrad Verner is someone I'm looking forward to see as well as the Reporter as those scenes were simply hilarious.
The story is very engaging with a fantastic intro that does an extremely good job at easing you into the world with lots of memorable moments even within the first couple hours. Overall it's quite short if you only do the main story missions but even then you'll have a damn good time. The story teaches you lots about the world and will throw some massive revelations near the end of the game which completely change the way you perceive things. This was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The voice acting was top tier with Male Shepard's VA killing it especially with the Renegade options. Captain Anderson was another memorable one that I enjoyed quite a bit, definitely looking forward to seeing more of him. The Music is generally not my style but I really enjoyed it. With "Vigil" quickly becoming one of my favorites.
The gameplay is wonderful with lots of variety. I really enjoyed debating on what I upgrades I should focus on for which character. The abilities where tons of fun to use as well. I also liked that the weapons don't have to reload and instead they can overheat, it's a shame it was changed for a regular reloading system. By the end of the game I was so overpowered I was one shotting the Geth and it was crazy. Not a complaint since I just found it pretty cool and funny but I thought I should mention it.
At first I hated the Mako more than anything and I audibly sighed everytime I saw it on screen. But by the end I grew to love it. At first I couldn't handle it properly (it was worse in the original) but eventually I adapted and grew to love the hilarious moments that came with it. Forever in our hearts, Mako.
The lore and worldbuilding in this game is simply immaculate and is so well done. A big reason why it's so good is because the writing is top tier. I can't wait to see how this changes from game to game.
This is a wonderful game and I can't believe a game of this size and ambition released back in 2007. This is a wonderful intro to the Mass Effect Universe and I cannot wait to jump into Mass Effect 2 shortly.
9/10
I have heard two of my friends praise this game trilogy endlessly for the better part of a year. They did not disappoint in the slightest.
First and foremost the characters are simply phenomenal and are so memorable. I really like them all, whether it's a main party member like Ashley or a more minor character like Captain Anderson. Personal favorites were Garrus and Wrex, Tali was cool as well but there wasn't a whole lot of plot relevance for her but I hear that changes in the other games. Liara has a lot of plot relevance and is cool but she just didn't end up as one of my favorites. Ashley and Kaidan aren't necessarily bad in any way I do like them but I just find them less compelling compared to my Alien buddies. The side characters are also pretty cool like Cool Mass Effect Black Guy that I've already mentioned, Joker plays a small role but is memorable as the pilot of the Normandy. Even the Council have some great moments (when you disconnect of course). Conrad Verner is someone I'm looking forward to see as well as the Reporter as those scenes were simply hilarious.
The story is very engaging with a fantastic intro that does an extremely good job at easing you into the world with lots of memorable moments even within the first couple hours. Overall it's quite short if you only do the main story missions but even then you'll have a damn good time. The story teaches you lots about the world and will throw some massive revelations near the end of the game which completely change the way you perceive things. This was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The voice acting was top tier with Male Shepard's VA killing it especially with the Renegade options. Captain Anderson was another memorable one that I enjoyed quite a bit, definitely looking forward to seeing more of him. The Music is generally not my style but I really enjoyed it. With "Vigil" quickly becoming one of my favorites.
The gameplay is wonderful with lots of variety. I really enjoyed debating on what I upgrades I should focus on for which character. The abilities where tons of fun to use as well. I also liked that the weapons don't have to reload and instead they can overheat, it's a shame it was changed for a regular reloading system. By the end of the game I was so overpowered I was one shotting the Geth and it was crazy. Not a complaint since I just found it pretty cool and funny but I thought I should mention it.
At first I hated the Mako more than anything and I audibly sighed everytime I saw it on screen. But by the end I grew to love it. At first I couldn't handle it properly (it was worse in the original) but eventually I adapted and grew to love the hilarious moments that came with it. Forever in our hearts, Mako.
The lore and worldbuilding in this game is simply immaculate and is so well done. A big reason why it's so good is because the writing is top tier. I can't wait to see how this changes from game to game.
This is a wonderful game and I can't believe a game of this size and ambition released back in 2007. This is a wonderful intro to the Mass Effect Universe and I cannot wait to jump into Mass Effect 2 shortly.
9/10
It's been 10+ years since I've played this game and it honestly is much better than I remember. I think the Legendary Edition has to take some of the credit (this game plays so much better than the original release) but I think I appreciated the story and world-building more this time around. This is an excellent start to the trilogy--it sets the stakes for the larger conflict, introduces us to some key characters and begins to build the large universe that they inhabit. I definitely appreciated the music this time around more as well--the synth is the perfect complement to the sci-fi setting. Already excited to dig into ME2.
*Played via the Legendary Collection for PS4
This was my first time experiencing the original Mass Effect because I never had a 360 back in the day and the PS3 somehow only had 2 and 3 available.
I gotta say, I actually enjoyed this game a hell of a lot. I had been told numerous times by friends who had played it that it was rough and not as good as 2, so I thought I wasn't missing much, but the writing in this game is brilliant, and I enjoyed the hell out of my time with it.
This was my first time experiencing the original Mass Effect because I never had a 360 back in the day and the PS3 somehow only had 2 and 3 available.
I gotta say, I actually enjoyed this game a hell of a lot. I had been told numerous times by friends who had played it that it was rough and not as good as 2, so I thought I wasn't missing much, but the writing in this game is brilliant, and I enjoyed the hell out of my time with it.
Jogo absurdamente bom. A forma que você conduz as linhas de diálogos pode influenciar totalmente na sua equipe e no final do jogo. O maior ponto negativo do jogo é o sistema de combate, principalmente o sistema de tiro. De resto o jogo tem uma dificuldade legal, exige você upar sua equipe para ter boas habilidades em combates difíceis. Vilão convincente e protagonista carismático.
the protagonist of this game is named Leader Leader and the forum of 2007 said this was leading the charge in video game storytelling
I enjoyed this game with it being the entry to the series. All the characters were interesting and well developed and it was a good start to the trilogy. Only downside was that the combat didn't seem too interesting personally but I think the next two improve on the combat a lot. Side missions didn't interest me too much either.
It's time for another episode of "I really liked this thing when I was younger and I cannot wait to get back- Oh hold on, wait a minute, oh it's Copaganda"
“Mass Effect will continue” sounds more like a threat than a cause for celebration at this point in Bioware’s history, but whatever turn the franchise takes next, I’m glad we got this one out of it. Mass Effect 2 was my introduction to the series, and my brother and I agreed at the time that neither of us could understand what people saw in it. When PS3 peasants like us were afforded the opportunity to play Mass Effect 1 years later and it culminated in spacewalking up the side of the Citadel with Sovereign looming overhead, though, I remember my brother watching on and saying “I think I understand now.” Revisiting it almost 10 years later, I’m with him on that one more than even then.
That isn’t to suggest that spectacle does the heavy lifting, however. Mass Effect probably doesn’t get enough credit for adapting the structure of a real time with pause RPG to the format of a third person shooter, and not just for the novelty of bouncing people around with biotics. There’s a satisfaction in moulding your squadmates from total jobbers into spacefaring John Woos via fiddling with their equipment and stats that isn’t really there in this game’s successors, at least not to the same degree. Both the level up and equipment screens look a lot more complicated than they actually are, but a couple of slightly cumbersome menus are worth tolerating for that rewarding, palpable sense of progression.
More conspicuous is the fact that supersoldier Shepard can only run for about 5 seconds before running out of breath, but he at least retains more manoeuvrability than a rusty schoolbus thanks to a significantly less rigid cover system than what would come later. Of all Cerberus’ crimes, their most egregious may just be making sprinting, vaulting & taking cover all share the same input in the sequels.
Shepard’s believability as a roleplaying template is also at its best here. Picking Paragon or Renegade options as the situation demands rather than going all in on one or the other feels more natural, since they’re less perfection personified versus petty prick and more diplomatic leader versus get-the-job-done-no-matter-what hardman. I played my Shepard going mostly Paragon before he eventually got fed up with aliens’ nonsense (especially b*tarians), realised that human supremacy is the only way to go and became accordingly irritable – compared to later entries, it’s pleasantly surprising how much it felt like an actual character arc of my own making rather than him being a schizo.
Believability in general is something Mass Effect’s writers were great at. Picking the Paragon option when Ashley mentions her faith to you is such an understated moment, and yet it demonstrates a better understanding of faith than any number of works in and outside of this medium to the extent that I can’t believe something like it exists in a Bioware game. What further helps your squad feel like real fleshed out people rather than dedicated quest dispensers is that they actually interact with each other really regularly, discussing and disagreeing on the current state of affairs after each main mission. This, plus Saren is by far the best antagonist this series ever saw, founded on the pretty reasonable motivation of trying to minimise the damage done by a seemingly undefeatable omnicidal threat, as opposed to trying to trick you into not realising what a moron he is by way of Martin Sheen acting circles around everybody else.
Every optional planet you can visit having the same three warehouses on them is a harder sell, as is how often the Mako or even just walking around civilian areas amounts to mindlessly holding forward for prolonged periods of time, but there’s probably a case to be made for it being the slightest of net positives in that tangibly exploring the galaxy is preferable to looking at it through a scanner. Granted, the sense of discovery is lessened a bit when you see a bunch of chest-high walls and immediately know what’s coming, but you get used to it. It was the 7th gen, you know?
As much of a drag as those things can be, Mass Effect becomes better the more I dwell on it. The electronic rock soundtrack’s a perfect match for the setting and otherwise far cooler than the standard fare orchestral stuff they’d increasingly rely on afterwards, speaking to Sovereign is an enthralling moment that exemplifies why Bioware used to be spoken of in the same breath as the likes of Black Isle or Troika, and in general there just aren’t a lot of space opera RPGs with this kind of scale or ambition or colourful, tight knit characters. We never got the Stargate SG-1 game I dreamed of when I was little, but I’m happy Mass Effect’s here to sort of fill that gap.
It only feels right to cap off with this - most credit sequences simply can't compete.
That isn’t to suggest that spectacle does the heavy lifting, however. Mass Effect probably doesn’t get enough credit for adapting the structure of a real time with pause RPG to the format of a third person shooter, and not just for the novelty of bouncing people around with biotics. There’s a satisfaction in moulding your squadmates from total jobbers into spacefaring John Woos via fiddling with their equipment and stats that isn’t really there in this game’s successors, at least not to the same degree. Both the level up and equipment screens look a lot more complicated than they actually are, but a couple of slightly cumbersome menus are worth tolerating for that rewarding, palpable sense of progression.
More conspicuous is the fact that supersoldier Shepard can only run for about 5 seconds before running out of breath, but he at least retains more manoeuvrability than a rusty schoolbus thanks to a significantly less rigid cover system than what would come later. Of all Cerberus’ crimes, their most egregious may just be making sprinting, vaulting & taking cover all share the same input in the sequels.
Shepard’s believability as a roleplaying template is also at its best here. Picking Paragon or Renegade options as the situation demands rather than going all in on one or the other feels more natural, since they’re less perfection personified versus petty prick and more diplomatic leader versus get-the-job-done-no-matter-what hardman. I played my Shepard going mostly Paragon before he eventually got fed up with aliens’ nonsense (especially b*tarians), realised that human supremacy is the only way to go and became accordingly irritable – compared to later entries, it’s pleasantly surprising how much it felt like an actual character arc of my own making rather than him being a schizo.
Believability in general is something Mass Effect’s writers were great at. Picking the Paragon option when Ashley mentions her faith to you is such an understated moment, and yet it demonstrates a better understanding of faith than any number of works in and outside of this medium to the extent that I can’t believe something like it exists in a Bioware game. What further helps your squad feel like real fleshed out people rather than dedicated quest dispensers is that they actually interact with each other really regularly, discussing and disagreeing on the current state of affairs after each main mission. This, plus Saren is by far the best antagonist this series ever saw, founded on the pretty reasonable motivation of trying to minimise the damage done by a seemingly undefeatable omnicidal threat, as opposed to trying to trick you into not realising what a moron he is by way of Martin Sheen acting circles around everybody else.
Every optional planet you can visit having the same three warehouses on them is a harder sell, as is how often the Mako or even just walking around civilian areas amounts to mindlessly holding forward for prolonged periods of time, but there’s probably a case to be made for it being the slightest of net positives in that tangibly exploring the galaxy is preferable to looking at it through a scanner. Granted, the sense of discovery is lessened a bit when you see a bunch of chest-high walls and immediately know what’s coming, but you get used to it. It was the 7th gen, you know?
As much of a drag as those things can be, Mass Effect becomes better the more I dwell on it. The electronic rock soundtrack’s a perfect match for the setting and otherwise far cooler than the standard fare orchestral stuff they’d increasingly rely on afterwards, speaking to Sovereign is an enthralling moment that exemplifies why Bioware used to be spoken of in the same breath as the likes of Black Isle or Troika, and in general there just aren’t a lot of space opera RPGs with this kind of scale or ambition or colourful, tight knit characters. We never got the Stargate SG-1 game I dreamed of when I was little, but I’m happy Mass Effect’s here to sort of fill that gap.
It only feels right to cap off with this - most credit sequences simply can't compete.
I can't believe I never played this back in the day, what a ride! Sure the combat is mediocre, the animations and real-time cutscenes are iffy sometimes but come on if the good parts don't more than make up for them!
I didn't even mind running through the same copy+pasted bases and mines a dozen times on random uncharted planets, the world-building is next level and despite all its flaws it was addictive and enjoyable the whole time. I can't wait to start 2.
*The only real problem I have is - you guessed it - another trophy issue... I've completed the game, I've done over 40 side-assignments and yet the trophy for completing 'the majority of the game' hasn't popped. My gf got this before hitting the halfway point in the story and everyone online says they got it at ~55 total missions, I've done at least 60 :(
I didn't even mind running through the same copy+pasted bases and mines a dozen times on random uncharted planets, the world-building is next level and despite all its flaws it was addictive and enjoyable the whole time. I can't wait to start 2.
*The only real problem I have is - you guessed it - another trophy issue... I've completed the game, I've done over 40 side-assignments and yet the trophy for completing 'the majority of the game' hasn't popped. My gf got this before hitting the halfway point in the story and everyone online says they got it at ~55 total missions, I've done at least 60 :(
Mass effect is an incredibly ambitious game that feels so grand and huge it can be overwhelming at times. as soon as you complete the tutorial area, you are thrown out into open space and can follow the main story or explore different planets as you choose. most non essential planets only contain a few side quests, but they feel incredibly cool to explore. The game has fully realized what a world with such advanced technology could look like, and the world feels so alive to explore for it.
Mass effect contains many great characters with their own personalities and stories, most of which you might never see. You could play this game over and over and over again and still have completely different cutscenes and dialogue with different characters. Speaking of dialogue, part of what makes this game so special is the massive amount of custom dialogue you can say as the main character, each piece by piece showing you more bits of the story as if you were actually talking to these npcs to figure out what is going on. This may just be one of the best RPG's ever in terms of its character writing.
The Story of mass effect gets more and more interesting the more you play; its better than i ever could have expected, and the world building is absolutely incredible. every small detail and place in this game seems to have a fully realized backstory behind it, which brings me to the locations. Every place and planet in this game explores a completely different possibility for what a future world could look like, all of them are incredible. they also pretty good for the amount of places you can explore and the Xbox 360's hardware limits.
The combat in this game can be fun, but doesn't deserve quite as much praise as the other aspects. using your abilities on a scroll wheel feels a little but clunky the auto cover system will often fail to work when its supposed to, and the movement is a bit awkward, making for some clunky encounters with enemies. It is fun but nothing crazy.
There is one issue i did have with this game, and that was its performance issues. during combat when there was a lot of enemies around, the frame rate would freeze up and slow to a crawl, and the same during cutscenes. the game pauses quite frequently to save or load, and there are some glitches i ran into such as my character being unable to move making me have to restart the game to progress. I'm not sure if these issues are specific to the Xbox 360 version or not but they are not too big of a deal as the game is still very enjoyable despite them.
Mass effect is a very special game that i feel more people should definitely play. i highly recommend it.
Mass effect contains many great characters with their own personalities and stories, most of which you might never see. You could play this game over and over and over again and still have completely different cutscenes and dialogue with different characters. Speaking of dialogue, part of what makes this game so special is the massive amount of custom dialogue you can say as the main character, each piece by piece showing you more bits of the story as if you were actually talking to these npcs to figure out what is going on. This may just be one of the best RPG's ever in terms of its character writing.
The Story of mass effect gets more and more interesting the more you play; its better than i ever could have expected, and the world building is absolutely incredible. every small detail and place in this game seems to have a fully realized backstory behind it, which brings me to the locations. Every place and planet in this game explores a completely different possibility for what a future world could look like, all of them are incredible. they also pretty good for the amount of places you can explore and the Xbox 360's hardware limits.
The combat in this game can be fun, but doesn't deserve quite as much praise as the other aspects. using your abilities on a scroll wheel feels a little but clunky the auto cover system will often fail to work when its supposed to, and the movement is a bit awkward, making for some clunky encounters with enemies. It is fun but nothing crazy.
There is one issue i did have with this game, and that was its performance issues. during combat when there was a lot of enemies around, the frame rate would freeze up and slow to a crawl, and the same during cutscenes. the game pauses quite frequently to save or load, and there are some glitches i ran into such as my character being unable to move making me have to restart the game to progress. I'm not sure if these issues are specific to the Xbox 360 version or not but they are not too big of a deal as the game is still very enjoyable despite them.
Mass effect is a very special game that i feel more people should definitely play. i highly recommend it.
From the heterosexual male gaze fantasy to the occasional internet neckbeardism in the dialogues, it's very clear this game caters to a single demographic, maybe to a fault.
Setting aside gender politics and blatant homophobia, the hypersexualization of the female presenting characters is actually hilarious. Subtitles strategically move to the top of the screen during the final scene with Matriarch Benezia to avoid blocking the view of her ginormous breast boobs and chesticles. Despite being a woman in STEM, Laria is written as a bimbo throwing herself at the Shepherd for no apparent reason.
It pains me to admit that the story fell flat given the reputation of Bioware and the franchise. It possesses the emotional maturity and depth of a teen CW show, though it does a decent job pushing the plot forward. After the post game clarity hit I felt incredibly disappointed by the writing. My biggest gripe is that the game dictates how you should feel but never gives you the time or opportunity to develop those emotions yourself.
The Reapers are painted as a highly intelligent terrifying species, but if I'm beating their asses in every combat, why should I be scared? The council recites bureaucratic speeches without a shred of empathy or compassion towards humans, yet the game insists they are crucial for galactic peace. It feels like mindlessly watching a superhero movie than living an interactive world. I also didn't like that companions stay silent 80% of the game, with meaningful conversations limited to the spaceship, making romances feel tacked on and cheap.
Despite these flaws, I thoroughly enjoyed the game because I love space themed RPGs and they can do no wrong in my eyes. With only a few titles in the genre, I desperately wanted this to be great, but it's ultimately a product of its time. I should have embraced it for what it is, not what it could be.
Anyway, got to kiss Kaidan on the lips so 4 stars.
Setting aside gender politics and blatant homophobia, the hypersexualization of the female presenting characters is actually hilarious. Subtitles strategically move to the top of the screen during the final scene with Matriarch Benezia to avoid blocking the view of her ginormous breast boobs and chesticles. Despite being a woman in STEM, Laria is written as a bimbo throwing herself at the Shepherd for no apparent reason.
It pains me to admit that the story fell flat given the reputation of Bioware and the franchise. It possesses the emotional maturity and depth of a teen CW show, though it does a decent job pushing the plot forward. After the post game clarity hit I felt incredibly disappointed by the writing. My biggest gripe is that the game dictates how you should feel but never gives you the time or opportunity to develop those emotions yourself.
The Reapers are painted as a highly intelligent terrifying species, but if I'm beating their asses in every combat, why should I be scared? The council recites bureaucratic speeches without a shred of empathy or compassion towards humans, yet the game insists they are crucial for galactic peace. It feels like mindlessly watching a superhero movie than living an interactive world. I also didn't like that companions stay silent 80% of the game, with meaningful conversations limited to the spaceship, making romances feel tacked on and cheap.
Despite these flaws, I thoroughly enjoyed the game because I love space themed RPGs and they can do no wrong in my eyes. With only a few titles in the genre, I desperately wanted this to be great, but it's ultimately a product of its time. I should have embraced it for what it is, not what it could be.
Anyway, got to kiss Kaidan on the lips so 4 stars.
A saga de mass effect é uma das mais ambiciosas de todos os tempos, uma verdadeira obra prima. A história envolvente, os personagens extremamente interessantes, os diálogos e decisões que podem salvar ou por fim a vida de alguém são coisas incríveis em todo o design do jogo.
Great story, world, characters. Everything is great except the gameplay. The gameplay has aged very poorly and is just not very fun in my opinion. Overall probably a 7 but a low 7 cause a bug caused me to lose 4 hours of progress.
Bioware would be my first choice to make a videogame about Robots pretending to be human but having no concept how actual humans interact with or speak to one another.
Still in awe of the absolutely incredible sci-fi world we got from Mass Effect. This game for sure had its flaws but I loved (almost) every second of it. (Looking at you, Mako)
Honestly I'm a little conflicted with this game.
On one hand I really like the world-building and some of the characters. But that gameplay man, ooofff it has not aged well at all, and the whole open world thing they try doing just makes it feel ironically kinda hallow.
On one hand I really like the world-building and some of the characters. But that gameplay man, ooofff it has not aged well at all, and the whole open world thing they try doing just makes it feel ironically kinda hallow.
🎮 Platform: PS5 - legendary edition
⌚ Time played - 15h - could have done it in 10-11h but explored a bit to see if the non main story stuff was interesting. Unfortunately it wasn’t.
⭐ Score: 3.5/5 ( a good game, appetizer feeling)
📈 Difficulty: easy game
📚 Full Review:
I am a huge BioWare fan and they made me love rpgs as my favorite genre thanks to baldurs gate, kotor, and more. With that said this game was just good. It was missing that magic sauce in BioWare games that makes it addictive. Throughout the game I kept wondering if I should replay kotor instead of this. However just starting me2, I am feeling my investment is paying off. That game is really gelling with me! Anyway this is a me1 review.
- The world building is great! They are really going for something big here. Unfortunately we don’t learn enough lore about the world, beyond main quest related lore, to make it engaging even with some side quests I tried.
- main story has some interesting Sci fi elements which kept me going. It’s a pretty short game.
- companions backstory was lack luster. This is often a standout in BioWare games. Companion interaction and squabble was also missing.
- the combat was fine. I just shot everything and rarely used any powers. BioWare games often force you to use your other powers against bosses and play with your abilities.
- side quests were run of the mill and did not grip me
- no real gear juggle or hunting. Just go for drop with highest numbers and SMG were always most powerful. Rest of weapons I tried to use them like a shotty in close combat. SMG was still better.
- lots of mechanics in game aren’t explained.
Overall play it and the payoff is probably in a future game than this. I think they used this as a learning testing game. It reminds of how drake series the 1st was fine but the pay off was starting drake 2.
⌚ Time played - 15h - could have done it in 10-11h but explored a bit to see if the non main story stuff was interesting. Unfortunately it wasn’t.
⭐ Score: 3.5/5 ( a good game, appetizer feeling)
📈 Difficulty: easy game
📚 Full Review:
I am a huge BioWare fan and they made me love rpgs as my favorite genre thanks to baldurs gate, kotor, and more. With that said this game was just good. It was missing that magic sauce in BioWare games that makes it addictive. Throughout the game I kept wondering if I should replay kotor instead of this. However just starting me2, I am feeling my investment is paying off. That game is really gelling with me! Anyway this is a me1 review.
- The world building is great! They are really going for something big here. Unfortunately we don’t learn enough lore about the world, beyond main quest related lore, to make it engaging even with some side quests I tried.
- main story has some interesting Sci fi elements which kept me going. It’s a pretty short game.
- companions backstory was lack luster. This is often a standout in BioWare games. Companion interaction and squabble was also missing.
- the combat was fine. I just shot everything and rarely used any powers. BioWare games often force you to use your other powers against bosses and play with your abilities.
- side quests were run of the mill and did not grip me
- no real gear juggle or hunting. Just go for drop with highest numbers and SMG were always most powerful. Rest of weapons I tried to use them like a shotty in close combat. SMG was still better.
- lots of mechanics in game aren’t explained.
Overall play it and the payoff is probably in a future game than this. I think they used this as a learning testing game. It reminds of how drake series the 1st was fine but the pay off was starting drake 2.
+ very slow "hook", but gets better as you play and get to know the characters
+ the final mission is absolutely epic. really made the whole experience much more memorable
- very very repetitive side missions, though the story elements helped.
- combat isn't the best, but at least not bullet sponges
+ the final mission is absolutely epic. really made the whole experience much more memorable
- very very repetitive side missions, though the story elements helped.
- combat isn't the best, but at least not bullet sponges
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Almost exactly a year ago, I started my 5th replay the Mass Effect trilogy with the then-newly made remaster, Legendary Edition, effectively finishing and summing up my thoughts on the collection back in January of this year. Since this was a bit before I actually decided to do longform reviews of games I've finished on this site - well, most of them anyway - it meant that 2 and 3 had a one-sentence long log, and I never did anything for 1, so I'm gonna try and do that whenever I feel like it.
One thing you can say about the first game from word go, is that it's ambitious. Both studios of Bioware are apparent about the influences of works that shape them when creating games, and no more is it evident than with this. Star Trek is an immediate reference point, especially given that it has numerous nods, similarities in species, and even VA castings, but you can also see Babylon 5 wrinkle itself in with some of the species and locales being rather in-line with how they're handled, even Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, that one critical and financial failure of a movie Square during their Soft days released all those years ago, was used as inspiration for some of the design for the various ships. It's a melting pot of sci-fi influences, some of which I probably even missed out on despite jumping in on the series since late 2014, and while admittedly the lines cross over to just straight up copying it wholesale, it ultimately feels like it's own thing, if that makes any sense. It won't be the first time you're seeing what a Krogan, Asari, or even Quarians and Hanar, but the intricacies and mythos behind those species tend to differ in big and small ways.
Even disregarding the worldbuilding and overall mythos of the first entry, just the general structure of the narrative is near-focused, aiming for those movie-like experiences. Specific camera angle compositions, how the plot unfolds as you go along, it might not be the first time Bioware tried their hand with sort of approach, but it's definitely the point in which Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn, Jack Wall, and the rest of the crew leaned all in with the look and flair that it had to offer. The reveal of Sovereign in its esoteric, practically Lovecraftian mystery and booming presence within a conversation talking shit about you and several others never fails to get me in awe, and that conversation with Vigil, as you drive towards this AI through a desolate and abandoned ruin of a planet, with the music playing and slowly crescendo in volume as you go along, all unfolding the backstory of it and the Citadel itself is damn near a top 10 spot of personal favorite moments in gaming history. Saren is also easily my favorite game-specific villain of the original trilogy, having an underlying presence and influence within most of the MacGuffin Planet spots, the buildup and implications as to what happened to him and why exactly he's doing the things he's doing. He has some Dumb Shit Moments and writing hacks, make no mistake, but to me it doesn't get as questionable as Collectors in ME2, nor does it get mind-bogglingly stupid and asinine as what happens to Illusive Man/Cerberus in ME3.
My stance and views on this can also apply with the gameplay side of things. I don't think it's quite unpopular anymore to say ME1's mechanics have actually held up pretty decently, especially with the remaster ironing out most of the kinks, but I do think it's still unpopular to say it's the best in the whole trilogy. Yes, I know, 2 and especially 3 are more polished and streamlined, but do they let me build and modify my characters to such a degree it actually feels like my approach in combat is radically different instead of only being a slight change? Do they have a near-consistent therapeutic loop of hub -> planet explorations -> main plot -> repeat, without feeling like something about it is missing or coming loose? Do they let me do endless ragdolls with Biotic powers, having different Tech-based abilities mess with enemy layouts, as well as making each gun feel a little more distinct from one another? And despite my ire with Paragon V Renegade, do the sequels at least achieve some sort of semblance of choice differentiation, that doesn't come across as jilted and nonsensical if you go from one side to another? Not really! Only this allows for all of that! Again, this was my fifth time going through the games, and each time I do a new class run I find something different to do and plan out on in the first game, yet rarely get that feeling in the sequels. I'll gladly put up with the obvious reuse of assets and mundane sidequests since at least the core action is something I get major kicks from.
That being said, it ain't perfect, nothing is. The top review on this site frames this game as being Copganda, and while exaggerated in parts, truthfully some of the details are either close to, or exactly like that, getting egregiously worse as you go along in the series, coming from someone whose political knowledge is rather below average all things considered. The framing is supposed to be that you, under the whims of the Systems Alliance board within just shy of four or five decades worth of first making contact with other aliens, are under their jurisdiction and weight, even causing issues and problems as you try and do things to bring something to light or stop it, only to get shoved aside and never taken seriously. Like, sure, it works for the most part, but when it doesn't, boy does it show. It will never sit right with me how a Paragon route will just have Shepard begrudgingly tell a Clear Asshole Bigot to stop being that because "they're being mean and hurtful >:(" without uh, any sort of effort or even oomph to... ya know, tell them off due to them being a Clear Asshole Bigot? It's pretty conservative in that regard. Before anyone mentions it, yes I know Renegade routes can devolve into a near-conservative stance as well, but not only is this an aspect that gets sanded off in the later games, it also stands to reason that the critique and aspect of how messy and borderline insane the politics and general norm of Mass Effect's social bubble - shit, Bioware game in general really - are still valid regardless. And to reiterate, overall I don't find its intensity of this to be that immediately present, it's just some aspects that stick out like a horrific, mutilated thumb that makes me question if someone took a second look at what was happening. On that note, let's talk about Ashley.
Probably the most controversial companion in the trilogy, it's tricky to unpack why exactly she doesn't fully work. The intent is... sorta clear, being a reserved being due to growing up in mainly human-dominant environments, as well as having a backstory that's supposed to help fuel her preconceived biases and flawed thinking, but the way it's handled is extremely messy. It teeters between this flawed yet understanding and easily changing line of thinking, even going as far as to call out the racism and self-superiority of a clearly shitty group of humans impromptu, yet falling into these pitfalls herself by making comments like this without a second thought, even being overly hostile to Liara, an Asari you rescue and recruit, solely cause her mother's in leagues with Saren... despite the fact that the two are practically distant once the game starts, and there being little to no way she can even be able to communicate and conspire with them to begin with there's only like, one time where I can buy the snaps Ashley makes towards her, when triggering an encounter that occurs when you romance both of them, but even then I feel like it's still a bit much. Even though the sequels makes an attempt to at least make her more understanding to have her break from this mindset, it's something that takes a major pill to swallow and put up with regardless.
As for the rest of the party members... they're pretty good, though I also have some issues with them. Backing up to Liara, she's supposed to be the loredump for the Asari, as well as this rather meek and rather reclusive scientist that helps to explain some of the happenings with the Protheans. Thing is though, they leaned too hard on the expository dialog, leaving her own sense of identity to be rather muddled, which is unfortunate since the moments with her in the story can be REALLY good. I'm also just, insanely annoyed as to how much they try to push her as being a Major Player, but that's for way later. Kaiden Alenko... you know Carth Onasi from KOTOR1? That one character that's actually pretty good but his problems and issues are at the forefront to such a degree people understandably call him whiny and annoying? Well, take all his appeal, throw most of it out and make him really boring, turn him super complacent and not nearly as much of a bellyacher, and that's pretty much Kaiden. He even has Raphael Sbarge back as the voice for him. Garrus is probably my favorite, being someone within the Citadel's security yet never quite understanding the weight and ramifications his actions can cause, their either being reaffirmed by Renegade checks, or challenged and making a case that ends never justify means by Paragon checks. Wrex is a hardass to damn near everyone he meets, but considering his species, the Krogan, are essentially on a ticking clock of doom due to the Genophage, a weapon that affected the livelihood and rampant upbringing of the species' fertility rate, and he's the only one that pretty much gives some amount of shit about it at some point, it's not too hard to fault him on... mostly, since this comes to ahead in the famous Virmire Standoff, and whether or not you have to shove him off or successfully calm him down depending on how you talk to him, as well as completing a personal quest of his. Tali is another exposition dump for what and how Quarians operate, but at the very least she has an actual arc available revolving around her Pilgrimage - Quarian's rough equivalence to the passage of adulthood - and how you can make her feel a bit at ease about it, even helping her out in one occasion. My thoughts on Bioware's companion writing have changed dramatically as I expanded and delved deeper into WRPGs, but still, I like most of this crew still. Can very much leave Kaiden and Ashley though.
Despite the extremely, extremely messy nature this game, and the series, can be on numerous occasions... I seriously find it hard to dismiss my adoration for it, and especially this game. Whether it's that damn nostalgic beast, genuine love and appreciation for the good shit, some mixture of the two, I don't know anymore, all I know is that it's earned a spot as being one of my favorite games ever made. Til the next run, you strange yet fascinating piece of media.
One thing you can say about the first game from word go, is that it's ambitious. Both studios of Bioware are apparent about the influences of works that shape them when creating games, and no more is it evident than with this. Star Trek is an immediate reference point, especially given that it has numerous nods, similarities in species, and even VA castings, but you can also see Babylon 5 wrinkle itself in with some of the species and locales being rather in-line with how they're handled, even Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, that one critical and financial failure of a movie Square during their Soft days released all those years ago, was used as inspiration for some of the design for the various ships. It's a melting pot of sci-fi influences, some of which I probably even missed out on despite jumping in on the series since late 2014, and while admittedly the lines cross over to just straight up copying it wholesale, it ultimately feels like it's own thing, if that makes any sense. It won't be the first time you're seeing what a Krogan, Asari, or even Quarians and Hanar, but the intricacies and mythos behind those species tend to differ in big and small ways.
Even disregarding the worldbuilding and overall mythos of the first entry, just the general structure of the narrative is near-focused, aiming for those movie-like experiences. Specific camera angle compositions, how the plot unfolds as you go along, it might not be the first time Bioware tried their hand with sort of approach, but it's definitely the point in which Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn, Jack Wall, and the rest of the crew leaned all in with the look and flair that it had to offer. The reveal of Sovereign in its esoteric, practically Lovecraftian mystery and booming presence within a conversation talking shit about you and several others never fails to get me in awe, and that conversation with Vigil, as you drive towards this AI through a desolate and abandoned ruin of a planet, with the music playing and slowly crescendo in volume as you go along, all unfolding the backstory of it and the Citadel itself is damn near a top 10 spot of personal favorite moments in gaming history. Saren is also easily my favorite game-specific villain of the original trilogy, having an underlying presence and influence within most of the MacGuffin Planet spots, the buildup and implications as to what happened to him and why exactly he's doing the things he's doing. He has some Dumb Shit Moments and writing hacks, make no mistake, but to me it doesn't get as questionable as Collectors in ME2, nor does it get mind-bogglingly stupid and asinine as what happens to Illusive Man/Cerberus in ME3.
My stance and views on this can also apply with the gameplay side of things. I don't think it's quite unpopular anymore to say ME1's mechanics have actually held up pretty decently, especially with the remaster ironing out most of the kinks, but I do think it's still unpopular to say it's the best in the whole trilogy. Yes, I know, 2 and especially 3 are more polished and streamlined, but do they let me build and modify my characters to such a degree it actually feels like my approach in combat is radically different instead of only being a slight change? Do they have a near-consistent therapeutic loop of hub -> planet explorations -> main plot -> repeat, without feeling like something about it is missing or coming loose? Do they let me do endless ragdolls with Biotic powers, having different Tech-based abilities mess with enemy layouts, as well as making each gun feel a little more distinct from one another? And despite my ire with Paragon V Renegade, do the sequels at least achieve some sort of semblance of choice differentiation, that doesn't come across as jilted and nonsensical if you go from one side to another? Not really! Only this allows for all of that! Again, this was my fifth time going through the games, and each time I do a new class run I find something different to do and plan out on in the first game, yet rarely get that feeling in the sequels. I'll gladly put up with the obvious reuse of assets and mundane sidequests since at least the core action is something I get major kicks from.
That being said, it ain't perfect, nothing is. The top review on this site frames this game as being Copganda, and while exaggerated in parts, truthfully some of the details are either close to, or exactly like that, getting egregiously worse as you go along in the series, coming from someone whose political knowledge is rather below average all things considered. The framing is supposed to be that you, under the whims of the Systems Alliance board within just shy of four or five decades worth of first making contact with other aliens, are under their jurisdiction and weight, even causing issues and problems as you try and do things to bring something to light or stop it, only to get shoved aside and never taken seriously. Like, sure, it works for the most part, but when it doesn't, boy does it show. It will never sit right with me how a Paragon route will just have Shepard begrudgingly tell a Clear Asshole Bigot to stop being that because "they're being mean and hurtful >:(" without uh, any sort of effort or even oomph to... ya know, tell them off due to them being a Clear Asshole Bigot? It's pretty conservative in that regard. Before anyone mentions it, yes I know Renegade routes can devolve into a near-conservative stance as well, but not only is this an aspect that gets sanded off in the later games, it also stands to reason that the critique and aspect of how messy and borderline insane the politics and general norm of Mass Effect's social bubble - shit, Bioware game in general really - are still valid regardless. And to reiterate, overall I don't find its intensity of this to be that immediately present, it's just some aspects that stick out like a horrific, mutilated thumb that makes me question if someone took a second look at what was happening. On that note, let's talk about Ashley.
Probably the most controversial companion in the trilogy, it's tricky to unpack why exactly she doesn't fully work. The intent is... sorta clear, being a reserved being due to growing up in mainly human-dominant environments, as well as having a backstory that's supposed to help fuel her preconceived biases and flawed thinking, but the way it's handled is extremely messy. It teeters between this flawed yet understanding and easily changing line of thinking, even going as far as to call out the racism and self-superiority of a clearly shitty group of humans impromptu, yet falling into these pitfalls herself by making comments like this without a second thought, even being overly hostile to Liara, an Asari you rescue and recruit, solely cause her mother's in leagues with Saren... despite the fact that the two are practically distant once the game starts, and there being little to no way she can even be able to communicate and conspire with them to begin with there's only like, one time where I can buy the snaps Ashley makes towards her, when triggering an encounter that occurs when you romance both of them, but even then I feel like it's still a bit much. Even though the sequels makes an attempt to at least make her more understanding to have her break from this mindset, it's something that takes a major pill to swallow and put up with regardless.
As for the rest of the party members... they're pretty good, though I also have some issues with them. Backing up to Liara, she's supposed to be the loredump for the Asari, as well as this rather meek and rather reclusive scientist that helps to explain some of the happenings with the Protheans. Thing is though, they leaned too hard on the expository dialog, leaving her own sense of identity to be rather muddled, which is unfortunate since the moments with her in the story can be REALLY good. I'm also just, insanely annoyed as to how much they try to push her as being a Major Player, but that's for way later. Kaiden Alenko... you know Carth Onasi from KOTOR1? That one character that's actually pretty good but his problems and issues are at the forefront to such a degree people understandably call him whiny and annoying? Well, take all his appeal, throw most of it out and make him really boring, turn him super complacent and not nearly as much of a bellyacher, and that's pretty much Kaiden. He even has Raphael Sbarge back as the voice for him. Garrus is probably my favorite, being someone within the Citadel's security yet never quite understanding the weight and ramifications his actions can cause, their either being reaffirmed by Renegade checks, or challenged and making a case that ends never justify means by Paragon checks. Wrex is a hardass to damn near everyone he meets, but considering his species, the Krogan, are essentially on a ticking clock of doom due to the Genophage, a weapon that affected the livelihood and rampant upbringing of the species' fertility rate, and he's the only one that pretty much gives some amount of shit about it at some point, it's not too hard to fault him on... mostly, since this comes to ahead in the famous Virmire Standoff, and whether or not you have to shove him off or successfully calm him down depending on how you talk to him, as well as completing a personal quest of his. Tali is another exposition dump for what and how Quarians operate, but at the very least she has an actual arc available revolving around her Pilgrimage - Quarian's rough equivalence to the passage of adulthood - and how you can make her feel a bit at ease about it, even helping her out in one occasion. My thoughts on Bioware's companion writing have changed dramatically as I expanded and delved deeper into WRPGs, but still, I like most of this crew still. Can very much leave Kaiden and Ashley though.
Despite the extremely, extremely messy nature this game, and the series, can be on numerous occasions... I seriously find it hard to dismiss my adoration for it, and especially this game. Whether it's that damn nostalgic beast, genuine love and appreciation for the good shit, some mixture of the two, I don't know anymore, all I know is that it's earned a spot as being one of my favorite games ever made. Til the next run, you strange yet fascinating piece of media.
The story was great can’t wait to carry it on with the next one, gameplay was a bit clunky but it is old now so that doesn’t bother me, was shorter than I was expecting, so that’s the only reason as to not give it higher stars