Mass Effect
PlayStation 3
Nostalgia Factor:
I first played through the Mass Effect Trilogy back in 2013, which, honestly, seems like a lifetime ago. I had an absolute blast with the games, and I hold all three of them in very high regard. I started this blog in 2015. I've been wanting to come back and play through these games again so I could review them, but it was just never the right time to do it. If I did it too soon, it is possible I would not have appreciated the series or given it the proper love it deserved. It would have been too fresh on my mind. I wanted the experience to be more like the first time playing it, where it was more of a new experience for me.
Well here we are in 2025. It's been a good 12 years since playing through the trilogy. I figured that was enough time. So starting now, I am going to be playing through the Mass Effect series in order, starting from the beginning. While I've always considered this to be the weakest of the three games, it holds a special place in my heart for laying the framework of the series and getting me invested in the gameplay, the universe, and the characters.
Let's see if I like it as much now as I did the first time through it. Let's begin.
Story:
This game has a very deep and complex story, filled with lore and events that have already been set in motion long before the storyline of the game. In the distant future, mankind has discovered an ancient relay on Mars that allows them to travel great distances in the blink of an eye. Humanity discovers that they are not alone in the universe, and that there is a society of alien beings out there that also use these relay stations to traverse the universe. These relay stations are relics that have been left behind by the Protheans, an ancient, advanced civilization that now seems to be extinct.
Humanity is the newest member of this universe-spanning alien society. The hub of this society is The Citadel, an advanced space station left behind by the Protheans. This is where the governing Council is located. The council views humanity as brash and reckless, and is hesitant to bring them into the fold.
You take control of Shepard, a human. You can make Shepard a male or female character. I made him a male on my first playthrough, so I made her a female this time around. Controlling Shepard, you are tasked with investigating a battle that has broken out around an ancient beacon that has been discovered on a distant planet. It may be Prothean in nature. When Shepard arrives, she finds that an alien Spectre named Saren is attempting to take this beacon for his own unknown purposes. A Spectre is a Council agent that is essentially above the law. Saren has been granted complete autonomy to act on his own and do anything necessary in the interests of the Council. But it seems he has gone rogue and is now a villain acting out on his own.
Saren has enlisted help of the Geth, a sentient robotic species that has turned on its creators and has nearly wiped them from the planet. If you've seen Battlestar Galactica, they are a little like the Cylons. With the assistance of the Geth, Saren is attempting to use ancient Prothean technology to summon the Reapers, an even bigger and more evil robotic force that wiped out the Protheans from existence. Shepard is promoted to Spectre, where she becomes the first human to earn this prestigious honor. Playing as Shepard, you must travel the universe and track down leads on Saren and the Geth.
Eventually (and I am skimming over a LOT of plot here), it is discovered that everything is a cycle. Organic species rise up. They begin exploring the universe. The Reapers come and wipe them out. Millions of years pass before organic beings rise up again. They begin branching out. Here come the Reapers to destroy them. This didn't start with the Protheans. This is a cycle that's been going on nearly as long as time itself.
The Citadel itself is a giant Trojan Horse. The signal to summon the Reapers comes from the Citadel. At the end of the game, Shepard chases Saren to the Citadel, where she must stop him from bringing the Reapers into our universe and wiping out organics once again.
Spoiler alert: she succeeds and kills Saren and stops the Reaper invasion. But the Reapers are still out there, looming as a threat. Future Mass Effect games deal with this conflict and stopping them completely once and for all.
Again, I skimmed over a lot of plot here. This is a very complex game, filled with advanced lore and lots of codecs and history to read through. It's like Game of Thrones or The Expanse in a video game form. I love it.
As you play, you'll be forced to make choices that effect how things play out. If you've played Knights of the Old Republic, it's like that. You can make good, virtuous choices, or you can be a dick. When I first played through this back in 2013, I was a dick. So I was good this time around.
What's cool about this series is that choices you make effect future games. So things I do here will make an impact when I play through Mass Effect 2 and 3. Which is super cool.
Gameplay:
There's a lot to unpack here. I'm not going to overwhelm you with every tiny thing the game has to offer, or we'll be here all day. I will try to keep it brief.
This is an action RPG. One the surface, it has a lot in common with games like Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, and Jade Empire. You walk around, you talk to people, you take on missions from strangers. You always have the "main mission" in the background. It's up to you whether or not you want to fully explore the game and its side missions or just attack the main quest head on.
The decisions you make effect how the game plays out. You can take the paragon route, where you are a benevolent hero who always seeks to do good, or you can take the renegade route, where you are ruthless and do what must be done to achieve your goal, regardless of the collateral damage. You aren't confined to one path. You can be good sometimes and bad at other times. Totally up to you.
The Citadel acts as the game's hub, where most of your missions can be found. When you get out and start exploring the universe, everything opens up. Let's say you are visiting a planet for a side quest. You could end up talking to other characters who will give you more quests. Before you know it, your entire menu will be filled up with things to do.
Combat is mainly action based. It controls a bit like a shooting game, such as Gears of War. But not quite so straightforward. You'll often find yourself pausing the game to take strategic action, like healing your character, changing your weapon, or using a special attack from your biotic wheel. While you can't control your companions in battle, you can tell them where to go by pressing commands on the D-Pad. These commands are pretty basic, like attack, follow me, or go to this specific place. When in battle, they will go where you tell them to go, but they will always be focusing their attacks on the enemies. The closest you can get to controlling your allies is when you open the biotic wheel. You can have them perform attacks like the Throw attack, the Overload attack, the Warp attack, and many others.
As you play, you gain experience points that you can assign to your characters to level them up in certain areas. You also earn money as you play, which you can use at shops to buy new equipment. All things you've seen in standard RPGs before. Unfortunately, this is one of "those" games where you can become overloaded by carrying too many things in your inventory. I hate when games do this. I constantly found myself running out of space, and then I'd have to break down my items into cooling gel, or sell them at the game's various shops.
One aspect of the game that makes Mass Effect unique is the Mako. Often when you land on a planet, especially one without a city, you will be dropped down to the surface on the Mako. The Mako is a tank-like vehicle that you must drive around to traverse the rough terrain. The Mako has two methods of attack: the rail gun and the cannon. Combat isn't too tough in this game, although those damn Thresher Maws had a way of popping up out of the ground directly below me and causing me to instantly lose my life.
Opinions on the Mako sections of the game are divided. Folks online love to complain about these sections, claiming the controls are janky and it is too tedious finding ways to traverse the terrain. These complaints are valid, but I think they are blown out of proportion. These segments are flawed, sure, but they aren't unplayable. I came into this game expecting to hate the Mako sections, and I really didn't. They're fine.
I really like the pace of this game. It doesn't drag its feet. You don't linger too unnecessarily long in certain locations, like you do in the Kotor series. I always thought that was such a major flaw of those games. I still have nightmares about Nal Hutta. For the most part, you tend to move through your missions and your environments pretty quickly here, with the exception of the segment towards the beginning when you are first exploring the Citadel.
If I had to offer one complaint, it would be in the repetitive nature of some of the game's missions. Go to a planet. Ride in your Mako to a destination on the map. Find an item or a voice log and pick it up. Return to ship. Go back to Citadel. Tell the person who you took the mission from what you found. Take your reward. Rinse and repeat.
The worst types of missions are the ones where you have to clear out enemy outposts. No matter which galaxy, no matter which planet, these freaking outposts are all the same. They use the same two or three designs. The enemies seem to be in the same places, too. It's wild. They could at least make these places look different. As a result, it adds to the repetitive nature of the game. Makes you feel like you are doing the same thing over and over again, and you aren't seeing anything new. I guess the good news is, I think they fix this in future games.
I think I've hit all the major talking points. I'm sure there are things out there I still could find time to talk about. But I don't want to keep you here all day.
Graphics:
This game still looks pretty good to me. It looks its worst when you are wandering sterile corridors or boring interior locations. Where the game shines is in its grandiosity, like when you are exploring a planet with a beautiful sunset in the background, or when you are looking at some of the game's majestic landscapes. I like the design of the Normandy, with the galaxy map and all the beeping consoles. The special effects, like hologram characters and lighting effects really sell the futuristic sci fi feel of the game. This truly feels like an intricate and established science fiction universe.
Sound:
This game has some really good music. It is pretty low key; rarely intrusive, but still adding a lot to the environment. It sounds calming and futuristic at the same time. I don't even know how to describe it. But it fits absolutely perfectly with the look and feel of this game.
The sound effects are good, but not memorable. The voice acting, however, is great. The voices sound very professionally done. There were a ton of voices in there I recognized but could not put a name to. Many famous voice actors and celebrities. A few that I did recognize were Marina Sirtis, Lance Henriksen, Keith David, and Seth Green.
All in all, the sound section of the game gets a resounding thumbs up from me.
Overall:
I thoroughly enjoyed Mass Effect. I liked it back in 2013. I like it maybe even just a little bit more now. It's not a game without flaws. Long load times, stupid insta-kills, backtracking if you die and haven't saved the game manually, and some pretty boring and repetitive fetch quests. All in all, though, I liked the game so much I was able to easily overlook some of these obvious flaws.
When I first played this series, I considered Mass Effect (the original) to be the weakest in the series. I liked the other two much, much more. If that holds up now, I am in for a real treat. Why? Because I had such a fun time with this. It is easily getting an A from me. If the sequels are even better, we could be looking at a couple of A plus titles in the near future. Hard to not get excited about playing those. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here.
Should you play Mass Effect? Heck yeah. If you haven't already, and you are reading this review, you need to remedy this immediately. Go out and play it now, and fall down the rabbit hole. It will be one of the best gaming decisions of your life.
THE GRADE:
A
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