In this age of sequels and reboots, it's rare for a beloved franchise to hang up its boots and say goodbye, well not rare really, it just hasn't happened, save for Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, and that's exactly where the Mass Effect saga fits in. Anyone with even a slight interest in gaming would be quick to acknowledge the impact the series has had on the industry, many aspects of modern gaming carry the influence of ME, a.k.a. the conversation wheel, cinematic storytelling, weighty player made decisions...
With the release of the Extended Cut DLC, Shepard's soul can finally rest in peace (literally), without having been murdered by a mysterious god child with colored beams of light/energy (Sorry Bioware you did drop the ball on that one!). The galaxy is safe and rebuilding, the reapers, well, they are doing what you made them do, if Shepard controls them, a couple of em surely are on the dance floor of the Afterlife Club in Omega, limbs and red lasers flailing about, as shocked onlookers flee the dance floor.
While the debate about the endings will still rage on, (Imo they are not perfect but they are good enough), we take this opportunity to look back to where it all began; Yes I'm talking Mass Effect 1, with the dreaded lifts and the bouncing Mako, for it was from that not so humble beginning that the series grew to become one of the most celebrated franchises in gaming history.
This week we play through Mass Effect 1, taking note of what made it to ME3, what was dropped, what's good and what's not. The subject for the test is one Amelia Shepard, a ruthless spacer renegade infiltrator, who dislikes everything that moves, including the residents of the Citadel who, well, move very little.
Amelia Shepard has come a long way since 2007; on the other hand, she was pissed off then and she's pissed off now.
ME1 starts off with the obligatory 2 paragraph intro about the discovery of the Mass Effect phenomena and the inclusion of Earth a.k.a. the human Alliance into the galactic community, the rest is for you to discover throughout the course of the game. Soon you are off on your first assignment to a planet called Eden Prime, which just happens to be attacked as you reach there; good that the Normandy (the smaller SR1) never has a lack of guns!
Obviously this is no normal attack, Shepard's no normal human, the Normandy is no normal ship, and neither is Nihlus an average turian. As with most video game (and Bioware) lore, your character is more than a cut above the rest of the folk, and has a great deal more than average responsibility on his/her so very capable shoulders.
The first Spectre you encounter is short lived
As soon as you land on Eden Prime, the first noticeable difference is the combat, the game for the most part has aged pretty well (the graphics are mostly on par with ME2-ME3, especially if you use the FXAA injector and a few texture mods like I do). The combat however is pretty clunky and the cover system doesn't work as well as it does in the later iterations of the series, but overall it does tend to get a lot more manageable as you level up and get better weapons and armor. (On Hardcore difficulty I died a lot and it took ages to get the sniper rifle stable at lower levels).
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The FXAA injector does make a difference
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Enemies are either not too smart or way too courageous because a lot of them keep rushing at you blindly (Made me wish I was a shotgun touting Vanguard), which generally leads to a heap of floating enemies once you have a biotic in your squad.
Waaay back when Ashley was just a frightened marine!
In any case the first mission does a good job of introducing you to the game mechanics and setting you up for the long journey ahead. Shepard weaves her way through the burning settlement of Eden Prime, managing to stay alive (and pissed off), until the object in question, a beacon of Prothean (sic) origin is found.
Someone forgot to tell Kaidan that fiddling with alien beacons isn't such a good idea
The story takes off from there, sending you on the chase of the rogue Spectre Saren and the Geth that follow him. Though the main storyline involves only 6-7 missions, most of the missions are fairly lengthy and involve a lot of decision making for Amelia Shepard, who for the most part shoots everything she is allowed to shoot; with a sniper rifle; in the head. (Too bad they don't explode like ME3!)
Do not believe at least half the stuff that joker says!
Squad members are less talkative in ME1, and the chatter among squad mates is limited only to the elevator rides in the Citadel; however they do express their opinions, anger, sadness, disgust, and excitement, at opportune moments. It's this fact that makes them lifelike right from the start of the series, and it's especially interesting to notice the personality development arc for some of the major characters of the series.
Amelia loves shoving guns into people's faces; Garrus and Kaidan share a 'Again!?' look
The one thing that Mass Effect 1 stands out the most for is that the sense of continuity and immersion it manages to create is definitely superior to that of its successors. This is due to a combination of factors, you get to explore barren desolate worlds, (I have to admit, I'm one of the rare few who actually LIKED the Mako), there is something about pushing the M-35 Mako to its limit, tyres squealing, as it tries to clamber up a near vertical cliff, just so that you can get a better view of the surroundings, that makes you feel more involved in the exploratory aspect of the Mass Effect universe.
Some planets are truly desolate and lonely
Other contributors are a lot more subtle, on docking the Normandy; Shepard actually has to walk to the airlock and exit the ship instead of being magically teleported; many areas of the Citadel need to be discovered first, some are not accessible through fast travel at all; both these aspects make the Citadel feel like the huge and sprawling space station it is, both ME2 and ME3 make the citadel feel like one building with a giant staircase/elevator right in the middle of it.
"Equalizing interior pressure with exterior atmosphere"
Though many have criticized this aspect of Mass Effect 1 (Too much running! Waaaah!). Being an old school RPG gamer (Neverwinter Nights, Diablo2, Dragon Age), the discovery of the world (in this case galaxy) within the game is as important for me as the actual gameplay. For when I fight for the survival of it I have to believe it's worth fighting for!
Probably still is the cheapest way to get back to Earth...
Through the course of the games many side missions you visit different locales, some more exotic, some truly desolate, some familiar; ME1 paints a diverse galaxy, at least on the surface. Where it stutters is the interiors, there are in fact only 2 of them which are recycled everywhere, only the furniture seems to be re-arranged. The side missions were of course fixed in ME2, which had fewer of them but they were all unique.
Amelia hates Rachni; aren't they just giant bugs anyway?
Like the rest of the series, ME1 too makes you take some really epic decisions; you choose the fate of entire species; the fate of your squad mates; and the fate of the council, to name a few. Most decisions are always in the gray area; What would happen if you let the Rachni Queen live? Would she support the war against the Reapers? Or will it be the war against the Rachni instead of the war against the Reapers next? In many cases it is not possible to make a 'good' decision, you end up choosing the lesser of two evils, (or the greater, in the case of Amelia; she would have preferred to snipe the Rachni Queen a few times just to make sure)
Being truly possessive about your gun is one of the hallmarks of the ME series
ME1 does have considerably more freedom of choice (You can actually choose to not let certain squadmates join your team at all; which leads to some amusing situations in ME2..!), and although in many cases you wish that the paragon/renegade interrupt system from ME2/3 did exist in ME1 too; the cinematic storytelling remains just as good.
Not all decisions are easy
Unfortunately, ME1 even after multiple patches still has a few persistent bugs, the most annoying of which is the 'Permanent overheat' bug, in which your gun once overheated, does not cool down in a few seconds (like it should, if it wants to be a good gun) making you save and reload the game. This tends to be a problem since your gun will most likely overheat in the middle of combat, and since you can't save in the middle of combat, it means that you will have to finish the rest of the fight without your favorite weapon. (I have had both of Amelia's guns perma-overheat and had to finish the fight with a shotgun, a weapon she isn't trained to use).
Just don't spawn under me again freaky worm!
Thresher Maws are glorious in their splendor and deadliness, the latter accented by the fact that they can spawn directly under the Mako, insta-killing you. The open ended physics seems to be at odds with the level design in multiple places; enemies that have been lifted or thrown can fall through a gap between the wall and the floor and get stuck on an unseen, inaccessible, lower level, (or higher level for that matter) which in turn means that the fight can't be completed and you will have to reload a previous save game and make sure you don't fling any enemies there again!
The minigame is quick, more fun and feels more integrated; don't know why they changed it
What does seem weird is that the mini-games in ME1 are considerably better and well integrated into the rest of the game, scanning just requires you to zoom in and click on a scan button (I have never liked the SR2's circular probe launching thingy), so scanning every planet you come across isn't tedious like ME2 and ME3; the lock picking game is quick and yet not easy, you can fail at it if you don't pay attention and aren't quick; I could never fail at the mini-games in ME2, which made them something of a waste of time since I knew I was going to open the crate/safe/door, but in order to do so I would have to make 10 clicks on this, that, here and there. It seems to be a case of Bioware fixing that which wasn't broken in the first place.
Amelia's squadmates are not the typical, "Yes Ma'am!" type...
As far as the storyline goes, like ME2 and ME3, it has depth and complexity, and the scope of your decisions are extensive; (Though ME2 mostly feels like a filler in between ME1 and ME3, but it had the best humor!) it feels complete and streamlined, and it is a great story in itself.
Kirrahe with the original, "We will hold the line!"
The council are their usual pestering self, and Admiral Hackett with the 5th Fleet occasionally butts in with a mission or two (Be sure to visit the moon, and shut down the future EDI!). Most characters you meet have a part to play in the sequels, so killing them isn't always a good idea (Though Amelia did; she just likes shooting people, you see), though those parts aren't necessarily positive.
Talking down the council is a mandatory part of Spectre training
As the story heads to its epic finish with the Battle of the Citadel, the complete weight of the decisions you make can be felt; and you know that at that point in time, the decisions that you are going to make will completely alter the game world in ME2 and ME3. Amelia though, cared little about aliens, and frankly, not a lot about humans either; so she let the Destiny Ascension burn up with the council on board (She also didn't want the largest ship in the galaxy to be non-human), and in doing so paved the way for the human domination of the galaxy in the next two games.
The Citadel fleet makes a stand during the Battle of the Citadel
ME1, despite its quirks and bugs, did accomplish many things that the sequels failed to, it's necessary to note that most of the art design of the Mass Effect universe was formulated in ME1, so were the major characters, the undercurrents and the politics of the galaxy at large; The Rachni Wars, First-contact War, The Krogan Rebellions, The Genophage, the Geth-Quarian equation. In the Mass Effect universe every species has a distinct deep history and background, but what sets Mass Effect apart from any other series out there is that you (as Shepard), choose what happens to them. By the end of ME3, every species in the vivid, intricate galaxy would have felt the impact of your decisions; and not all of them will live to tell the tale.
As far as Mass Effect goes, there are a lot of people who have jumped into the series only since ME2, which is admittedly a lot easier to get into, but for any sci-fi fan, or RPG fan, or gaming fan in general; I suggest giving Mass Effect a go, if you can stick through it, there is no way you will regret it (Unless of course you end up with everyone dead). Not only does it make a worthy addition to your shelf of games, it also enhances a couple of others sitting there. For gamers who haven't been through the Mass Effect series yet, pick up the first two games, they are pretty cheap now, and when you are done with them, ME3 will be waiting for you...
Until the next time, its goodbye, and good luck with the Reapers!
