Mass Effect

Here comes my first proper post in the blog!

I just finished Mass Effect 2 for the third time already (finished Mass Effect 1 around four times though), so I thought it would be nice to write my own opinion about it and somewhat of a review about it.

WARNING - MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Starting to write about the first game in the series seems most logical, so that I will do.
A summary of the game first then:
Mass Effect takes place in year 2183, you're Commander Shepard(which can be male or female, also have different backstories but is always refeered to as some kind of hero and someone the galaxy needs) and is aboard a ship called the Normandy.
Without Shepards knowledge, they're evaluating him/her to become a spectre for the Citadel (a common area for all aliens in the galaxy to gather).

When they reach the planet they were heading for, it is under attack by a massive ship and many synthetic lifeforms called Geth, which haven't been beyond the Veil in centuries. They encounter another Spectre, Saren, that killed the Spectre that evaluating Shepard, Nihlus. He was then suspected of being a traitor since he was seen leading the Geth.

On the planet they find a beacon that was left behind by the Protheans, a race that was wiped out over 50,000 years ago. Shepard get in contact with it and get visions, which s/he can't sort out at first.

They return to the Citadel to tell about about Saren being a traitor, but the council didn't belive them because Shepard didn't have any evidence to prove the claims.

Not wanting to stop there, Shepard explored the Citadel and came across three people(Garrus Vakarian, Urdnot Wrex and Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Tali for short) that ended up joining him/her to stop Saren. Tali had evidence that proved that Saren was in fact a traitor.

When proving this, the council decided to make Shepard a Spectre to be able to stop Saren from starting wars and attacking the Citadel.

After Shepard was made Spectre, s/he set out to explore different worlds that held clues about where Saren might be and what he was planing to do. On one of the planets, they rescued an Asari woman named Liara T'Soni, a Prothean expert. She became a big asset to the team, both in combat and knowledge.

One of the planets held a lifeform that was belive to be extinct, the Rachni. They also encountered Benezia, Liaras mother that worked for Saren. After defeating her, Shepard get a choice to kill the Rachni Queen or set her free.

On Feros, yet another important planet they visited, they came across yet another ancient lifeform called Thorian. It held knowledge Saren had aquired but after being betrayed by him, it refused to give Shepard the same information. The Thorian couldn't be saved due to being to hostile and the knowledge went lost forever.

The team got a distress signal from a planet called Virmire. When they arrived and explored it, they found a group of Salarians in dire need of help, but thought an army was comming to help. They later found that Saren had a research facility there that had cured the Genophage, a mutation the Salarians had created to stop them from breeding to much and expant to fast.
Shepards team and the Salarians set out to blow up the facility, but during the exploration of it they came across another Prothean beacon. They also talked with the big ship they had seen on the planet with the first beacon, which was called Sovereign, a so call Reaperd that was only a myth. It was there revealed it controlled Saren to an extent and it was Sovereign that wanted to call in a whole army of Reapers to wipe out all intelligent life in the galaxy. Also that Saren have left for a plannet called Ilos.

When they were about to blow up the facility, Shepard had to make a tough choice, to leave one of his/her teammates behind and die in the blast. It was either Ashley or Kaidan, one helping the Salarian strike team, the other arming the nuke.

After that is done, they get called back to the Citadel for a meeting with the council. That meeting end up in the Normandy getting grounded and can't go to Ilos. The council also refuses to belive that the Reapers exist and disgard the threat.

Shepard get help from and old friend, Andresson, to get Normandy back in space and off to Ilos to stop Saren.

They found out many vital things on Ilos, what happend to the Protheans, more about the Reapers and what the Conduit was, a thing that Saren was chasing. When they got to the Conduit, it was a Mass Relay that sent them to the Citadel, that was revealed to be a giant Mass Relay that would take the Reapers in from Dark Space.

When they got sent back to the Citadel, they found it completely under attack by Geth and Sovereign. They caught up to Saren eventually and had a talk with him about why he was doing all this. That talk could end in several different ways, all from Saren comming to senses and killing himself since it was the best way, or ending up fighting him.
When Saren got defeated, Sovereign controlled his body, which was possible due to a lot of implants that was made on Sarens body. During this fight, the Alliance and the rest of the Citadel fleet is fighting the Geth and Sovereign, which is very hard to kill. When Sarens possessed body get defeated, Sovereign lose power and get vunerable, which end in him getting himself killed.

Depending on what choices Shepard made regarding to save or sacrifice the Council, the Council is either rebuilt by humans or humanity just getting a seat in the Council.

The story end this time by Shepard setting out in space to stop the uppcomming Reaper attack.

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Phew, that was a long summary. Or maybe it was short? I don't really now, never really done it before. But now it is time for the review, which will be easier to write than the summary.

I guess the first thing to review is the plot.

The plot in Mass Effect is relativly original and very interesting. You first wonder what those Geth is, why Saren is doing what he is doing and what the FUCK is that big ship?
Of course much of that is explained during the course of the game, but also a lot of questions are asked wich is to be answered in the next game.
When playing Mass Effect, the story never get boring, you always want more of it and continue playing until the game is over and then want even more because it is simply so damn interesting!
It is well done and nicely executed.

Second, the characters in the game, both main and supporting characters.

First off we have Kaidan Alenko, a human aboard the Normandy. He is trained to use Biotics, a power which is similar to the force, or even simplet, telekensis but more awesome. He will be with you all the time, unless you decide to leave him on Virmire.
He's not my favorite character in the game, a little plain for me. Most of the humans are. He is also a possible romance for the female Shepard.

The second team-member you get is Ashley Williams, which you meet on Eden Prime during the attack. She a tough and very skilled soldier in the game, also a deep believer in god.
She was my least favorite character, well on the squard atleast. The thing that really rubbed my the wrong way was that she was really racist and considered aliens lower than humans instead of viewing them as induvidials. She also stays the whole time, unless she is left behind on Virmire (which I've always done during my 4 playthroughs).
The only good thing about her, is that she changes her mind before she dies and start to like aliens better. She is a possible romance for the male shepard.

Garrus Vakarian is the third squad member you meet, but he is optional to reqruit, but who wouldn't reqruit Garrus? He's a C-Sec officer that feel that he can't do his job to take down the bad guys in his current job. He's also the first alien possible to reqruit to the team. He's a Turian, a insect like creatures.
For me Garrus was the one I brought along the most when being out on missions, both because he was an awesome combatant, but also because he was awesome and funny. Garrus stays with the Normandy the whole time after you've recruited him, which of course made me happy. Especially that he didn't die since he is one of the most awesome characters in Mass Effect, especially the first one.

The fourth squard member and the second aliend to be on your squard is Urdnot Wrex, but called Wrex. He is of the Krogan race, a reptile like race that has a really sturdy body and a long lifespan and can live up to 1000 years. Wrex love combant and never say no to a battle to the death, which he always comes out from.
He was really memorable, because he was so cold but carring at the same time. Especially since he cares about the Krogan race while mostly no one else cares that they're slowly dying out.
Wrex was also one of those I brought with me the most, because he was an awesome tank in the game, and like all the aliens in the game, he were more interesting when you interacted with him.
It is possible to lose Wrex on Virmire if you don't have enough charm or intimidate. If you don't succed to convince him to help you, since he is starting to have doubts about fighting Saren when he find out he had cured the genophage, Ashley will kill him since he starts to become a threat (which was a big reason I killed Ashley the first time, since I lacked the charm skill x'D).
If he survives, he will be with you through out the rest of the game.

The fifth character to join your cause is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Tali for short. She is a Quarian and is on her pilgrimage(something all Quarians do when they're comming to age). She helped Shepard to prove that Saren was a traitor and then joined the crew.
She is on the same level as Garrus, but more funny and adorable than him. Also very interesting due to her race as Quarian, which was the race who created the Geth and that they have to live in suits their whole live. As with Garrus and Wrex, I took her along a lot on the team, and usually replaced Wrex since I like her more than him.
Luckily, she is a must and doesn't die at any point in the game. Unfortunately, she is not a possible romance in Mass Effect 1.

The last crew member is Liara T'Soni, an Asari researcher who is an expert on Protheans. She's very cute and adorable, mostly due to being kind of clumsy with her words and easily get embarrased when talking. I also find their race very interesting, since they don't mate like others. They mate through a Joining, where their mind and sould mends together and through that they get the genes for their kids and get pregnant. They're the only known spieces that can have interspieces sex, and they also only give birth to Asari children.
They only have female bodies but are monogendered, which is a really many disslike the race, since they think they're herms as in having both kind of equipment or likewise. I don't think they're disgausting or anything though, rather the opposite.
She is a possible romance for both male and female Shepard and the one I always ended up with since Kaidan and Ashley are so plain.

Another character worth mentioning is Joke, the pilot on Normandy. He is a male human, with brittle bone syndrome and easily break a bone. But what makes him so nice is his sarcasm, teasing and messing with everyone.
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Now when I'm done with that, let us proceed to gameplay.

First to mention, the game is a TPS-RPG (Third Person Shooter - Role Playing Game), which is a really nice mix of genres of a game, makes is so much more dynamic and regualar roleplaying games which is either turnbased or similar.
You don't have any ammo but to compensate for that the weapons overheat and you can't shoot until they've cooled down. There's also a cover system that makes it nicer, that you can hide and take over from enemy fire. It is not just staning behind a wall or whatever, but the character leans against it and cover itself, also possible to shoot from the corner from walls or over craters.

Characters also have either biotic powers or tech abilites. Biotic as explained before, is a special kind of power and most strong in Asari, but other races also possess them. The power can do different things, lift the enemies, throw them away, stun them or likewise.
Tech is more technology based abilites, where you disrupt shields, overload the weapons and other things that will make the life for the enemy a living hell.

It is really fun to use biotics or tech, it creates a wider possability to kill and destroy your enemies. Since otherwise you would only shoot them, which would be limited.

A fun thing in Mass Effect was to explore remote worlds with Mako, a small tank that can get across more or less all terain. It was always really fun to drive around in it, all awesome tricks you could do. Sometimes I ended up doing a lot of wierd shit instead of exploring the worlds, so it was really entertaining.

Another thing that you could do was to encrypt things you found, like debris, artifacts and lockers. You had to press a sequence of buttons to unlock it and get the item(s). Which was nice something to strive for, especially to find hidden items and such.

What was so nice about it, was that you wasn't forced to go in one direction, had to take one planet after the other. You could explore the galaxies, remote planets, level up and get better equipment. Also do the sidequests for your characters. But it was never forced in one direction, but was more open, which was for the better and give a more uniqe gameplay, since you could do it differently every time.
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Another big thing that I think deserves a seperet section, is interaction with characters.

The thing I like the most and which made special was the interaction with the characters aboard the ship. You could talk and create relationship with all the characters aboard, and depending on how you did, they would think different about you.
With three out of those six, you could get a more intimate relationship and eventually get together with them. But all depended on how you did when interacted with them.
This is a funtion I find that most RPG games lack, and which makes this one more RPG and most ones out there. Because you have to do your part to get close to your team-mates instead of having it on auto.
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The worlds shouldn't be neglected, they played a big role in the game after all.

All the major worlds were uniqe and really interesting to explore. You could talk with character to find out more about the place, shop to aquirre better equipment.

All from Edem Prime, a former and supposedly really beautiful planet, to the Citadel, an artifcial enviroment to host a lot of people and different alien races, to Noveria, a planet that is constantly snowy, icy and sterile, to Feros who is run down and people is trying to establish a colony there.

They're all fun to explore and it's nice that they've taken their time to make them different. The only bad thing is the small worlds you explore in the Mako, because they're mostly the same places but with different textures. That could have done better, not that it ruined the gameplay.
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Graphics and sound is also something worth mentioning.

Mass Effect has really nice graphics, but for someone like me, I always find flaws and think most things could easily have made to look better. Some models looks a little pointy and could have had more work, also some textures could have have more time. Luckily the major things, like the main character, the Normandy and such have nice modeling and texturing and looks really nice.

The music in Mass Effect is really something, it sets the mood and get you into the game even more than before. Every music fit their setting and every event. It is there, you don't really concentrate to listen to it, but it play a big role to make the game even better.

Something I must compliment Mass Effect for is the Voice Acting. It is really, really, REALLY well done. Most english voice acting is average and uninteresting, but Mass Effects voice acting is everything but average. They've really bothered to sound belivable, to get the characters personality in the voices too.
For example, Kaidan have almost constant headaces and migranes, so he wispers a lot. Just such a thing is really good. And when the characters are angry, they sound genuily angry, same goes for when they get sad or upset. You're not only seeing it, you're hearing it to.
That makes the game so much better.
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There, I think I've covered everything important about the game and DAMN, it took me a long while to write this all x'D
Now you all better read this shit!

I will do a post about Mass Effect 2, but that's for another day when I find more time to write such a long post.

I also hope this was an interesting read about Mass Effect, both for those who have played it and those who want to play it or is just interested about it.

So, Vincent out for this time and I hope everyone else has a nice day/night or whatever! x'D