The Mass Effect trilogy is a personal favourite of mine, ever since I played the first one back in the day. Mass Effect 1 was released in 2007 and I remember enjoying it at the time, knowing very little about the intentions of the series. It's created by Bioware, back when they were at the top of their... game.
I remember not completing it on my first playthrough, and then I heard that the second game was coming out, and went back to it, especially after hearing about a feature that I had never heard about in any other game.
Save games from the first game would not only port to the second but the third as well. I obviously missed the memo when I picked it up and just liked the look and sound of it when I saw it in the shop. Porting save files obviously meant that any of your choices and actions taken in each game would be remembered and would give long-lasting effects; allowing these games to be enjoyed as one large experience, rather than individual releases of the same franchise.
Needless to say, Bioware became one of my favourite publishers, especially when I played Dragon Age: Origins and KOTOR 2. They have kind of fallen from grace, but their legacy is long-lasting.
Mass Effect Review
This isn't going to be a review for the series, because I'd like to talk about my favourite part of these games; the world-building and lore.
But, for the sake of it, I'll give a quick overview of the series and give my thoughts on it, in case anyone would be interested in playing them.
In 2021 the remastered trilogy was released, which included all three games, with next-gen graphics, as well as all of the DLC - bar one - which to me is the best thing about playing the remastered edition. Back in the day I never had a chance to play them, so to be able to go into it now - with everything included - feels like playing them for the first time.
You play as John, or Jane Shepard, who within the first few minutes of the game comes into contact with an antient bit of tech that gives him/ or her, visions of the demise of all intelligent life in the galaxy.
Now, Shepard has to convince everyone to join together to fight them. As the game progresses, Shepard and his crew discovers that they are called the reapers and come around every 12,000 - 14,000 years and wipe out all intelligent life; essentially resetting the galaxy.
If you like RPGs and don't mind a lot of dialogue in your games, I think this series is a must-play, especially if you like Science Fiction stories and highstake, against the odds spectacles.
The first game - even with the remaster - is clunky and kind of shows its date in the controls, and the dialogue is a bit too much. But, by the second game, most of the gameplay quirks are sorted out and the dialogue feels much more concise. If the save port feature wasn't a thing I would almost recommend going straight into the second one, but to be honest, the first one has a lot of charm. It also sets up the trilogy really well and gets you invested in the characters, story, and universe.
The Crew
Accompanying the great protagonist is a great group of characters, some of who, are with you from the first to the third game, and they are all well-written and feel three-dimensional.
Each of them has issues, problems, hopes, dreams, and desires, which are discovered through dialogue throughout the games and you can even decide to help them complete their solo missions, which helps to grow your relationship with them and helps them open up to you even more.
The Lore and World-Building
Mass Effect is set in The Milkyway Galaxy and is set about 160 years in the future, taking place between 2183-2186 C.E.
The history of the games tells of explorers who reached Mars, and while there, they discovered ruins and technology of a long-extinct race. One thing leads to another, and after traversing further into space, they discover Mass Relays.
While traversing further into space than they ever had before, humanity started colonizing planets, carelessly threading into territory that wasn't theirs, which then started something called 'The First Contact War' This event is referenced a lot, especially in the first game. Because of this conflict, humans are distrusted, hence why no one believes you about the reaper threat.
There is a lot to unpack, but I want to continue by choosing a few crew members, who represent larger races and lore elements, and the kinds of issues you have to overcome while keeping a ship full of aliens together who all share history with one another, both positive and negative.
Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy and The Quarians
Tali is one of the crew members you come across in the first game and she stays with you until the last game. Throughout the games you discover more and more about her people, the Quarians and their story is pretty sad.
At some point, hundreds of years ago, they created artificial life and these droids, called the Geth were used as a slave race essentially until they gained sentience and overthrew their creators. A lot of Quarians died, and the survivors had no choice but to run away from their home world. Leaving it to the Geth.
Now they live in a vast collection of ships, that are collectively known as the flotilla. Because of this, their immune systems are essentially non-existent, meaning they have to live in suites, which protects them from germs and viruses. A suit breach, or cold could mean death to them and when they want to take a partner, they have to take a hell of a lot of medication to get themselves ready. One of the most intimate things they can do with their partner is exchange oxygen tubes, which is kind of like kissing, but while this is good for climatizing themselves with their partner, it too has its risks.
The Geth and Legion
The Geth act as the main enemy of the first game, and by the time you meet Tali you have already encountered them multiple times. They are fitted with self-destruction measures upon their death, which stops anyone from reverse engineering them or learning about them.
In the second game, you meet a Geth known as Legion who isn't like the rest of them and he joins your crew. But, with this comes apprehension from Tali, as her home world was lost to them. She's not the only one who distrusts Legion, as most of the crew know what they're capable of and have been fighting them for a while.
Legion quickly became one of my personal favourites after he joined the crew, and I the dynamic between him and Tali really interesting and it was a conflict that had a good resolution.
For Now, I'll End This Post Here
This post got a little bit too long for me to get into another couple of crew members I wanted to speak about. But, I'd like to come back and discuss a few more of them, and their histories.
The World Building in this series is amazing, and each of the crew members and races has a reason to distrust or dislike one another, which is a testament to the writers and creators of it and is a great example of how to make a world feel lived in.
I think the important thing about world-building, especially amongst races and factions is identifying who their friends are and who their enemies are because once you nail down the conflict, dialogue can be helped, a lot.
Personally, I love writing factions, and it's a lot of fun to create them. It's pretty easy because once you create the laws of the world, you can find out who dwells on which side of it; once you find out where a group stands it's easy to create believable interactions between them all, which helps to create their history and with that, it's easy to spot where they may be going.