It took me awhile to get into “Mass Effect,” but once I did, I couldn’t stop. Even in the middle of some of my weekly multiplayer sessions with my friends, I kept thinking ‘You know, I could be exploring the galaxy and continuing to hunt down Saren instead of this pointless battle over some flags in the middle of a ruined Middle Eastern city (aka. “Call of Duty 4″).’
I was really impressed with the original characters and designs of the various races, although I was hoping for more. When exploring the numerous planets in the galaxy, you think there’d be more than around six species. Apparently, they all hated me because each planet I explored (outside of the main quest), I would always be under attack. You’d think that these isolated people might be interested in talking to someone new.
The story and characters were great, but the loading and those damn elevators around every corner soon became annoying. While I truly appreciated the cinematic quality of the game, I just wish that there were more lights in the future. The whole universe seemed to be going through a brownout to save on energy. The pop-ins of the higher resolution graphics were also troubling, especially in the cutscenes. Hopefully BioWare will have heard the community’s complaints about this and will address the issue in the remaining sequels.
Speaking of sequels, I can’t wait to see how some of my decisions in this game affect the rest of the story. The first time playing “Mass Effect,” I tried to represent humanity as a kinder, gentler race - as in I played it like a good guy. One decision I made in this first go was to save the Arachni queen, an insect-like race which nearly destroyed the universe many years ago. In a conversation with the queen, I found them to be misunderstood and that the queen vowed to return to its home world and spread the word of peace. So, I let the species continue to survive. Will that come back to haunt me?
Going the ‘good’ route in my first playthrough, I’m now excited about making the opposite decisions in my next career. There are several moments in the game where you have to make a tough decision, whether it’s deciding which teammate to save or whether to allow a species to live or become extinct. I can’t wait to see what happens when I play as a renegade bad ass.
