The Mass Effect franchise

3 weeks ago or so, my attempts at completing all achievements for Dragon Age: Origins were halted when the Return to Ostagar DLC was first made available, as the accompanying patch rendered my game temporarily unplayable. At first, I was obviously annoyed, but then I decided to reward Bioware for this only recently fixed bug by buying Mass Effect off XBLM. In the weeks that followed, I have discovered a new favorite franchise, having now completed the original game in full twice, only putting off my third play-through in order to pick up Mass Effect 2.

The first Mass Effect was pretty awesome. I don’t often whore myself out to achievements, especially when it comes to difficulty-based things. Yet, somehow the game demands it from me. It remains rewarding on multiple iterations through the story, while posing an increasing challenge with each unlockable difficulty. The story is communicated through strong characters, really strong emotional choices, and a general drive for the hero’s success, as I find is the case with many Bioware games. Yet, unlike games such as Dragon Age and Baldur’s Gate, Mass Effect allows you to step into the shoes of a pre-existing character, our noble Commander Shepard. You guide his actions and speech without defining them, which allows him to surprise you fairly often with his intelligence and wit. Without writing a full review, suffice it to say I’m quite fond of the game. It is definitely one of the best I’ve played. (More after the break)

Then, Mass Effect 2 comes along, with its lofty claims that your ME1 character and decisions will carry over into the ME2 story. Somehow they’ve managed to respect every decision from the main mission to short side quests, and in the process achieving an even deeper connection to the ME world.

I have yet to finish ME2, so I am hesitant to give it a full assessment. I am currently 17 hours into the game, with no foreseeable end in sight, though I get the sense I might have another 15 hours to go. Characters have stronger voices, stronger personalities, and not just the companions. Everyone on your ship’s crew has something more to say almost always, even those that you can’t talk to directly cycle through various conversations for your listening pleasure.

I’m gushing about this game. I’m going to try to be objective now. The combat improves upon ME1’s considerably by making abilities more useful and accessible. The UI/inventory system has been stripped down to the bare minimum, taking out most of the loot-lust that defines ME1. Instead of constantly acquiring new and better weapons, you instead upgrade your existing ones, or get new types of weapons. The same applies to Shepard’s armor. Companions come with their own available sets of upgrades, but you never have to worry about properly equipping them. The ship is a bigger environment, with a few useful tools for expediting your duties throughout. You can get a space hamster for your private room. Basically, everything that was lacking in the first game has been improved or added in the second. Space hamsters included. That's not objective any more, though.

Really, the point of my writing this article is to overstate my opinion that the Mass Effect series should henceforth be considered one of the greats, up there with MGS, Zelda, Half-Life, and Tetris. If you’re looking for something to do, pick up the first game for $20 on Steam or XBLM, forgive the graphical abnormalities, and enjoy. Do expect to want the sequel with gusto shortly thereafter, however.