BioWare did something incredible with the original Mass Effect

[ResistCritical]

IMO, its sequel is so good- I really don't mind annoyingly hearing "Enemies everywhere!" a thousand times as I'm a ME completist so my save file can be loaded into ME 2.

I enjoyed #3 as well. If EA launches it on Switch, I'll triple dip.

 

[GaussianMultivariate]

I guess I'd ask here. Since there aren't many great games in this genre, what other things (books, TV shows, movies, whatever) can you recommend with great writing and a similar theme?

 

[Dog]

I look back on my memories of these games so fondly, the characters, story and music man... I miss it.

2 is my favourite.

 

[TheUnsungHero26]

Mass Effect 1 is my favourite game of all time, though it is quite apparent BioWare was figuring things out along the way.

The economy is particular is pretty much broken. You can tell quest rewards/ dialogue was recorded before they finalized things. Early side quests will have characters say they'll give you 75 credits, or a medpak. Pretty pointless rewards, but the real reason you did them was to see the story and see if your choice would have an impact on the sequel.

ME2 basically felt like a soft-reboot for the series. The game's intro -- Shepard dying and being rebuilt by Cerberus -- is unintentionally a perfect metaphor BioWare being bought by EA.

 

[Candescence]

Andromeda is just full of lazy lore that goes like

"And the angaran were attacked by tormentors, but did their best to survive, almost in vain..."

Like, it's nothing like telling you about the number of total inhabitants per planet, and specific years when certain events happened.

Reading the codex in ME1 or even talking to characters you get actual stories, like full on anecdotes about specific historic events that occured and in Andromeda the Neo-BioWare-Writers just take the airheaded route where they insinuate things happened or play on emotions to mask that they don't have any specific story they want ot share and try really hard to make you think "Oh, I they've been through something rough, oh no."

"something" is the biggest enemy of post-ME3 BioWare. They don't know what anything is anymore.

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It's something I really should be taking notes on, myself. I want to make a sci-fi RPG akin to ME one day, and while I have the general details and races of my universe plotted out, I really should be trying to delve into the more specific details and historical events.

 

[SchrodingerC]

Mass Effect 1 is still the best ME, imo. I know 2 gets much deserved praise, and I still enjoy the game, but it strips out all the things that I had loved from 1.
The exploration cut was the most depressing aspect of ME2.

 

[Trey]

And it regressed in RPG department, exploration department and pure 70s sci fi department .
Mass Effect 2 is much better game and overall one of the best games of last gen. Its just not as good as mass effect experience

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ME2 is a better game, and "Mass Effect game," from every single angle if you ask me. Kudos to ME1 for starting the franchise off strong, even with its limitations. It was a very ambitious game.

 

[DSP]

It really is. It's a completely original scifi universe and player just breezes into it and you keep learning about it in a natural way and main draw of the series was learning about all these races and their cultures for me. I never cared much about the gameplay aspect.

 

[Kasey]

Yeah it was really great. Too bad the rest of the games aren't nearly as good.

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ME2 is very good in a different way.

But I agree, nothing tops ME1.

 

[Ivory Samoan]

Moses smell the Rose's, remaster this asap EA.

 

[BlackManLovesKUF]

I freaking love ME1, easily one of my favorite RPGs ever. As good a coming out party for a new IP as you can get Bioware absolutely crushed it.

 

[olag]

The first Mass Effect game represents something you rarely get these days. Adventure, exploration and a new well written universe to explore.I remember just getting lost exploring the citadel......just taking in all the sites.....meeting new alien species for the first time........talking to avina. Those were the days.There must have been something in the air during the 360/PS3 era. So many great new IPs....

Its such a shame that no publisher wants to fill that mass effect shaped hole in the market that Bioware has left.

 

[Magnus]

OP, having not played ME1, how did it achieve that feeling of being an already established IP and universe?

I mean, name dropping a ton of races and history and events could do it if done the right way (which is what I want to identify) but it could also come across as overwhelming and as cheap world building. I don't know. But I want to understand what it was about this game that did it right.

 

[Sterling's Gold]

One of my favorite games ever

Retro synth appreciation time

 

[Cats_Schrodinger]

The only game and studio that managed this with a new IP is Guerrilla with Horizon.

They did the same thing. Created a new universe and it felt like home.

 

[Kurdel]

The first hour and a half of Mass Effect is still incredible to this day.

The citadel, setting up all the races, such an engrossing experience.

It's a shame they tried to make this more into an action series instead of going more in the RPG direction.

 

[Sterling's Gold]

Going through the OST and holy shit the atmosphere in ME1 is untouchable

 

[Ceerious]

I like strolling on planets with my friends in mako
RIP mako

 

[Phantom]

Can't wait for the HD trilogy

 

[Mass Effect]

Still the best Mass Effect

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Yep

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

I need to replay the trilogy.
Never played a femshep.

 

[Vic Damone Jr.]

Man, I really miss Mass Effect. The first game was so damn magical. The citadel, the Normandy it all felt alive.

 

[Deleted member 56752]

As much as I liked the music, characters, story, etc. I thought the actual interactive game part was all around terrible and I prefer the action game with dialog approach to two and three

 

[Syril]

OP, having not played ME1, how did it achieve that feeling of being an already established IP and universe?

I mean, name dropping a ton of races and history and events could do it if done the right way (which is what I want to identify) but it could also come across as overwhelming and as cheap world building. I don't know. But I want to understand what it was about this game that did it right.

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The beginning put a lot of focus on establishing the status quo in the setting and calling attention to when something was deviating from it. Even the character creation got in on it by framing it as pulling up existing information about Shepard and reconstructing their profile manually if you didn't use a preset. Looking at the backstory options you learn about both notable events in recent history and different conditions people in the setting would have grown up in. In the opening scenes there are multiple conversations you can have about how the circumstances you're in both align with and deviate from typical Alliance operations. You're also frequently getting codex entries to learn about what's typical for the setting so you can see how thing that you're doing aren't. Also there's tons of detail in them about things like how technology works or how ships operate or how FTL communication works. It all gives the feel of a setting that exists outside of the events of the story.

 

[Yopis]

Easily my favourite Mass Effect game. It felt like I was playing in this huge mysterious universe where I couldn't possibly uncover all its secrets - and I never got anything remotely close to that feeling with the sequels.

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Well said. Always felt the same.

 

[ClydeBonFrog]

I had that for about an hour, being kinda bummed they sold out to certain features in order to streamline it... then I realized ME2 is awesome and marries the better designed combat with the best features of ME1 - the conversation system - which was even better directed this time and also had some good choices throughout. The plot itself, as act 2 of the trilogy, is admittedly flawed but as a singular, simple story, about being a leader who directs his team into hell and comes out on the other side it's pretty good and as part of the trilogy it expands the lore of things that were told but never shown in ME1 to great effect (Tuchanka missions and Tali's Loyalty mission) and it also shows there's more aspects to the galaxy than you saw in the more confined space of ME1.

I love ME2 as much as ME1. It's just in different ways. I feel Mass Effect 1 repeated 3 times with only the plot itself evolving would've been boring. And it's only thanks to ME2 making the appearance, acting and action more believable that I started to like ME1 when revisiting it, because I knew all its pacing issues would be mitigated by 2's more focused pace. ME3 then was where it broke for me. I liked ME2, I just wasn't aware BioWare weren't going to try and blend the strengths of ME1 and 2 for ME3. Instead they just removed more exploration elements, stripped down the choices and started crapping all over the lore and storytelling with desperate attempts at closure that isn't even necessary. (character's sacrificing themselves constantly and a misguided campaign solely focused on curing the genophage, quarians going to war after the Reapers arrive because they're STUPID).

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I just feel like they stream lined it way too much. Not being able to really change weapons or armors except on your ship, on top of there only being a few different choices. Then pairing down the ability trees as well gave me the same feeling. Mix that with the kind of corridor shooting level design, and it just felt way too streamlined. Granted the dialogue and cinematic were better. I also didn't really care for the premise of the plot. Shepard being recruited by Cerberus. I honestly would have just prefered the continuing adventures of Shepard the specter and the crew on the Normandy. Kind of like Star Trek. Also that's another cool story point from 1 that they kind of dropped in 2 and 3, was the idea of Shepard being the first human specter.

 

[Ushay]

They really need to remake these games, they'd sell like hotcakes imo.

 

[TheMadTitan]

I felt this way about all three of the trilogy games and still do. There's a reason why Mass Effect, despite each game being damn ear 40 hours long, only marginally trails behind Metal Gear Solid as my most replayed (to completion) games of all time.

 

[selo]

Yup, although clunky, its the best in the series by far.

 

[Deleted member 45414]

Best Mass Effect by far :)

 

[Wate]

Mass Effect 1 is my favourite game of all time, nothing else has come close to conveying a lived-in and detailed depiction of a utopian future that's simultaneously flawed enough to provide strong tension for a narrative.
I have this playlist looping almost non-stop some days: Mass Effect - 1 Hour of Music

 

[Aztechnology]

I miss it

 

[Jegriva]

I like how the first scene is Shepard watching Earth thru the space-window, just to give us a geographical setting of near-Earth and not deep space.

A beatiful little touch.

 

[Jegriva]

I don't recall that? The first one even? If so then it was after I had already moved on. I specifically remember the second game being the only one available for a long time, then 3 came out. I don't remember the first going to the system.

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It was released in 2013, when the rights of ME1 passed from Microsoft Games to EA.

 

[Asbsand]

It's something I really should be taking notes on, myself. I want to make a sci-fi RPG akin to ME one day, and while I have the general details and races of my universe plotted out, I really should be trying to delve into the more specific details and historical events.

Click to shrink...

They had 5 writers doing Mass Effect. I almost dare say all 5 did equal amounts of work but I don't think that's accurate as some came on later, but there were roughly 4 of them for the duration of the projects who are responsible for each CritPath level and certain side-content.

Virmire is Mac Walters and Luke Kristjanson
Noveria is Chris L'Etoile's
Feros I don't actually know, maybe Luke, maybe Drew, maybe Mike Laidlaw who is also credited.
Eden Prime, Ilos and Citadel's story content is Drew Karpyshyn's
Patrick Weekes came on late and wrote side-missions, I forget which.

So that's the missions. The codex itself has details like planetary stats, which were initially created by Casey Hudson in an excel program he wrote, but afterwards Chris L'Etoile who had been assigned as their "IP Writer" due to his work on Asheron's Call would then go in and clean up the auto-generated facts to be more scientific, and he also wrote every single word in the ME1 Codex.

So that's an example of the team effort it takes to create Mass Effect. I don't think there would've been the same amount of historic detail with year and date if they didn't have a senior writer completely assigned to doing it. In Drew Karpyshyn's own spin-off novels he even skips ahead of some minutia by writing things like "It had been so long ago that the Captain lost track of the years." which I think shows that no one man can keep Mass Effect in their head.

That's why it arguably started falling apart from its integrity slightly in ME2 and then 3. all but two ME1 writers had left before ME3 and only one of them had stayed on Mass Effect since the beginning, which is Mac Walters so he was their "veteran" but he wasn't their Lore-guy despite writing excellent pieces like Bring Down The Sky, and he even admitted that he wasn't the guy who could come up with the "minutia". But with the Old Guard of Mass Effect largely replaced by the time they started doing DLC for ME2 it was people coming in with different perceptions and comprehension of Mass Effect, even if they all loved it.

I think that reading comprehension changes from person to person so it's because the original BioWare bubble was bursted that Mass Effect started to change, as well as the changes to the gaming industry and BioWare's role within EA.

 

[ThisThingIsUseful]

Wrex Effect. Best game in the series.

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Wrex <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

My first Mass Effects were 2 and 3, so I had Wreav. fml

 

[Barnak]

Despite me loving all of the trilogy games, the first Mass Effect will always hold a special place in my heart even with its jankiness and repetitive buildings/bunkers/caves. The way the story and side stories were developed, the amazing retro soundtrack, the giant Citadel to explore(i really wanted Illium and Omega in ME2 to be almost as big as that), the beautiful skyboxes... it all work all too well together and what made me fall in love with the franchise. I stop counting the number of times I replayed everything.

The fact that we didn't get skyboxes like these in huge quantities in all the trilogy games is a damn shame. Instead, we had way too many skyboxes similar to what you'd see on Earth. I mean, go crazy Bioware in the next Mass Effect, it's fucking sci-fi!

 

[Asbsand]

The exploration cut was the most depressing aspect of ME2.

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While they did scrap the UNCs they still have exploration in several of the stages. There's side-rooms with NPCs that lead to persuade dialogues and there's audio logs, there's vistas where you squad will comment on the view. Yes, it felt smaller but if there's a game that really fucked it up it was ME3 where the only parts outside of Normandy or Citadel have exploration are the start of Sur'Kesh (the Salarian base you go to) and the mission where Jacob possibly shows up, and one bit on Earth at the end.

There are no side-rooms and no optional conversations with meaningful decisions to make. Every mission in ME3 is a level where you shoot, and enter mandatory cutscenes with maybe a total of 2 choice wheels per scene despite Shepard talking every second exchange. Then they try to emulate Uncharted with action setpieces and it just isn't impressive at all.

I know ME2 is where they started abandoning ME1's approach but I could at least see ME2 as a departure for the sake of improving the pacing whilist keeping a lot of elements of ME1 that actually worked well.

 

[Fiery Phoenix]

They had 5 writers doing Mass Effect. I almost dare say all 5 did equal amounts of work but I don't think that's accurate as some came on later, but there were roughly 4 of them for the duration of the projects who are responsible for each CritPath level and certain side-content.

Virmire is Mac Walters and Luke Kristjanson
Noveria is Chris L'Etoile's
Feros I don't actually know, maybe Luke, maybe Drew, maybe Mike Laidlaw who is also credited.
Eden Prime, Ilos and Citadel's story content is Drew Karpyshyn's
Patrick Weekes came on late and wrote side-missions, I forget which.

So that's the missions. The codex itself has details like planetary stats, which were initially created by Casey Hudson in an excel program he wrote, but afterwards Chris L'Etoile who had been assigned as their "IP Writer" due to his work on Asheron's Call would then go in and clean up the auto-generated facts to be more scientific, and he also wrote every single word in the ME1 Codex.

So that's an example of the team effort it takes to create Mass Effect. I don't think there would've been the same amount of historic detail with year and date if they didn't have a senior writer completely assigned to doing it. In Drew Karpyshyn's own spin-off novels he even skips ahead of some minutia by writing things like "It had been so long ago that the Captain lost track of the years." which I think shows that no one man can keep Mass Effect in their head.

That's why it arguably started falling apart from its integrity slightly in ME2 and then 3. all but two ME1 writers had left before ME3 and only one of them had stayed on Mass Effect since the beginning, which is Mac Walters so he was their "veteran" but he wasn't their Lore-guy despite writing excellent pieces like Bring Down The Sky, and he even admitted that he wasn't the guy who could come up with the "minutia". But with the Old Guard of Mass Effect largely replaced by the time they started doing DLC for ME2 it was people coming in with different perceptions and comprehension of Mass Effect, even if they all loved it.

I think that reading comprehension changes from person to person so it's because the original BioWare bubble was bursted that Mass Effect started to change, as well as the changes to the gaming industry and BioWare's role within EA.

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IIRC, Chris L'Etoile wrote the codex entries, the planetary decriptions, the Noveria subplot, and Ashley. He also wrote for ME2, mainly Thane and Legion, before leaving BioWare shortly before the game's release. Patrick Weekes wrote Liara in addition to some side quests (not really sure on this one, either).

ME1 definitely had the biggest writing love of all three games. There's a reason it feel so damn good to just explore its corners.

 

[Asbsand]

IIRC, Chris L'Etoile wrote the codex entries, the planetary decriptions, the Noveria subplot, and Ashley. He also wrote for ME2, mainly Thane and Legion, before leaving BioWare shortly before the game's release. Patrick Weekes wrote Liara in addition to some side quests (not really sure on this one, either).

ME1 definitely had the biggest writing love of all three games. There's a reason it feel so damn good to just explore its corners.

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It's because after ME1 they started budgeting their writing, assigning a word cap on each writer, to manage how much they could record and how much they could implement properly through cinematics. That left them unable to expand upon the plot in all the areas they probably wanted to.

 

[mueske]

Finally a thread where ME1 gets the recognition it deserves! Probably the last good BioWare game.

ME1 > ME3 > > > ME2

 

[Foxnull]

One of my all time favorites. The ingame codex and the entire ME universe is so damn interesting.

 

[Hey Please]

My favourite ME game but it is tarnished by BioWare having zero confidence in the better Shep, FemShep, promotion & marketing wise.

 

[Amibguous Cad]

I guess I'd ask here. Since there aren't many great games in this genre, what other things (books, TV shows, movies, whatever) can you recommend with great writing and a similar theme?

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I'm told Babylon 5 is kind of smilar in scope, if you like the galactic diplomacy thing.

But really what you want is an obscure game released on DOS and 3DO

It includes all the galactic diplomacy, new aliens to talk to and befriend, and worldbuilding of Mass Effect - plus a fuckoff huge galaxy and arcadey space combat in place of Mass Effect's mediocre.

And it's totally free. The devs released a version updated to run on modern hardware in order to gin up support for a sequel.

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

If we were to get a remake or remaster, wouldnt it most likely appear next gen at this point?

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

My favourite ME game but it is tarnished by BioWare having zero confidence in the better Shep, FemShep, promotion & marketing wise.

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How does marketing tarnish a game?

 

[ThreepQuest64]

It was amazing and I never heard of or played a game like this before: science fiction role playing shooter and an RPG where you don't start as nobody? This was new to me and adored Mass Effect. From the way people reacted to Commander Shepard, you could interact with your crew in fully voiced cutscenes and dialogues even though your character could be created via a character editor. The exploration of different solar systems and several planets that were unfortunately identical gameplay wise but different alright in their looks and atmosphere was also a great feature.

Although ME2 feels more refined in every aspect, its predecessor still holds a special place in my heart and memory. I was completely blown away back then.

 

[Barnak]

I guess I'd ask here. Since there aren't many great games in this genre, what other things (books, TV shows, movies, whatever) can you recommend with great writing and a similar theme?

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I suggest looking into The Expanse. You might even recognize a certain Quarian's voice from one of the actress (no, not Tali). ;)

 

[RDreamer]

Personally I thought the first Mass Effect was a jank mess and a slog only worth playing so you can get to the better games. It's the worst in the series and it ain't close.

 

[Yarbskoo]

The original Mass Effect is probably the one I have the least fun actually playing, but it's well above the sequels in terms of world building and storytelling. It really felt like an evolution of KotOR, and Mass Effect 2 and especially 3 took some steps in the wrong direction.

I suggest looking into The Expanse. You might even recognize a certain Quarian's voice from one of the actress (no, not Tali). ;)

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She was also in Star Trek Beyond.