My thoughts on Mass Effect

So I've been staying around my boyfriend's for the last week and a half, and I noticed that he had Mass Effect (All three, in fact) and so I thought I'd begin playing this series. I've heard lots of good things about it, and so I began by playing the first Mass Effect.

I created a female Shepherd called Faris (get the reference?) and made her a Vanguard. I think I chose Vanguard because it gives me a good balance of combat, combined with the use of powers and skills. I could have gone full soldier, but that would be a tad boring, and full adept would make me lose some bite.

Anyway, so I started the game, and throughout I basically binged on sidequests. I do love the sidequests. By the time I did the first core mission (finding Liara) I was in the mid twenties. The maps are sometimes similar, like those underground bases whose layout are identical, but otherwise fun.

I'm now just before Virmire, and nearing level 50. It's a very good game, and looking forward to Mass Effect 2.

What are your thoughts on Mass Effect in general? Also, Sam insists I hear no spoilers whatsoever, so put those in brackets, he insists.

The first one is good. Make sure you're either all paragon or all renegade because the first game locks some choices out closer to the end if you're not all one or the other. The next two are better about it. I know I personally, although I'm almost always all paragon, I sometimes like to pick other choices as they fit me better. So just be careful about it for the first game.

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Originally Posted by Freya

The first one is good. Make sure you're either all paragon or all renegade because the first game locks some choices out closer to the end if you're not all one or the other. The next two are better about it. I know I personally, although I'm almost always all paragon, I sometimes like to pick other choices as they fit me better. So just be careful about it for the first game.

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Yeah, I learned this lesson the hard way since I like to vary my responses depending on the context of the situation since it gave my character more depth, I feel.

I love the Mass Effect series overall despite its flaws. I think 2 and 3 really irons out the problems with the first one well, though I still love the first one. I did a lot of sidequests my last playthrough in Feburary and get what you mean. I was disappointed by the lack of maps variety and how lazy the storytelling to it was compared to the main quest.

Mass Effect is great despite its imperfections. One of my biggest complaints is that the Renegade-Paragon dichotomy is a little blurry. You only seem to have the choice between Lawful Good and Chaotic Evil actions. I don't want to be a gigantic dick just for the sake of it; sometimes I want to shoot a guy because it's the right thing to do, even if it's wrong. Like punching that bitch reporter. She deserves it, even though assault is bad.

But the flipside is also true. Maybe I don't want to be worse than Saren. Maybe I just want to coerce people into a contract where they pay me double and I do half the work or whatever. It's legally binding, I'm in the clear, but it's clearly not "good".

I've only played about 20 minutes of ME3 (or was it 2?) while visiting a friend. Can't say much about it.

I'm a pretty big fan of Mass Effect, and BioWare in general. After coming off of all their stellar licensed games, I couldn't wait to see what kind of stuff they could come up with on their own after Jade Empire. Its a little weird that they completely re-used their Knights of the Old Republic storyline though. But otherwise, I loved what they were going for. Updated 80s Sci-Fi craziness on steroids and pretty much played straight the whole way. Not of a lot of moon logic, everything was pretty well researched and fairly plausible. I loved the world probably as much as I loved the characters and story. And could easily see a lesser Mass Effect game set outside everything that was going on and still do extremely well considering how deep the universe was

It's a really fleshed out sci fi world with a lot of love and care poured into it that I can appreciate. I liked each one better than the last. I even liked 3's ending. Whatever. Psychotic is a huge Kai Leng fan so flood his visitor messages with pictures of him.

The mass effect series are some of my favourite games. I love (almost) all the characters and there were so many heartbreaking moments in 2&3. I wish I could have kept wrex in my party through all three games, he was the perfect companion to my renegade Shepard.