Summary

The Mass Effect trilogy is a series of action RPG games developed by Bioware and published by EA from 2007-2012. They were originally released for consoles, but have been re-released in 2021 as Mass Effect Legendary Edition. The series follows Commander Shepard and their crew's fight against the Reapers, the Collectors, and much more.

In Legendary Edition, we've gotten a number of graphical improvements, some gameplay changes, as well as the inclusion of all the DLC that was released over the original games' lives. I'm a big fan of the series and am excited to dive back into it. I've made the decision to play it all on Insanity difficulty (Why did you allow me to do that, viewer?). So expect death and lots of it!

Review

Wild to me the idea of reviewing Mass Effect. But try we shall. For the sake of completeness.

I do have a soft spot for Mass Effect. I started playing the series very shortly after the 3rd game came out and I fell in love. If I turn on my genuine critical eye I can point out a number of inadequacies that I would normally look past. The writing is really no great shakes. A 2nd playthrough immediately shows you how little you're really changing anything with your dialogue. And just on the whole the minute-to-minute dialogue is very standard video game. Which is to say, not great. Even though that is ostensibly the series' draw.

I think, in general, the shape of the characters does a lot of heavy lifting for the actual content of those characters. The player fills in a lot of details that we don't really see. How much dialogue does Garrus and Shepard actually have together in the first game? Not a huge amount. But the player thinks of Garrus as a sort of protégé and friend. And so he's frequently at the top of most people's lists. Same for Liara or Tali. They're interesting-looking, and friendly. They're people you'd like to know more about. And the general atmosphere of the game helps that. You feel that you're a scrappy group of underdogs fighting the good fight. Something that gets underlines repeatedly in later series entries.

And so a lot of the things that would normally get criticized, are instead swept aside. Mass Effect is a game that is more than the sum of its parts. Its some of the best of Bioware, though I can't help but feel a little disappointed in that. Again, I can critically point out many things I don't like even though I like the final product. What could we have had then if the writing had proper depth and nuance. Imagine injecting some Disco Elysium into the Mass Effect universe. My gawd.

Links

Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXbBIoFOxaQsrknDNY9tM3YHRDrVsETma