Introduction
Thanks to MA-Horus for thread title inspiration
I've been in a coma for 8 years, what game is this?
Mass Effect was released in November 2007. Made by Bioware in partnership with Microsoft Studios it was originally an Xbox 360 exclusive, then later was ported to the PC and finally to Playstation in 2012. It is a sci-fi action RPG. Released to critical acclaim it spawned a trilogy, a shitfit about bad ends, and some really terrible fans who make posts on the Bioware forums about Tali's sweat.
In the game we play as Commander Shepard, a soldier in the future Human Systems Alliance.
Commander Shepard is fairly iconic at this point, voiced by Mark Meer on the dude side and Jennifer Hale for lady Shepard. Originally they weren't going to offer a choice of gender, and adding FemShep was more or less an afterthought. This resulted in FemShep having almost identical dialogue, no ridiculous sashaying walk, and no "feminine" bullshit like weeping over lost motherhood. FemShep is a straight-up badass soldier and the only dumb holdover is that her armor has boobs. Femshep can also be gay (well, close enough anyway) where ManShep can't touch a pee-pee until Mass Effect 3. This was released in 2007 and people just weren't ready for the balls to touch. To this day something like 80% of people play default John Shepard, soldier, proving at least 80% of people are dumb.
Gameplay
ME is fairly old-school RPG. You have to level up not only your abilities, but also your guns. If you don't then you'll shoot like you're drunk, your weapons will overheat faster and they'll do less damage. Magic in this game is known as Biotics, but it's still spell-flinging. We're gonna be playing as a Vanguard. They're relatively OP in the original, but get progressively more crazy in the later games until nothing can fucking kill you, even on insanity. Combat level is set to casual, because the combat in this game is shit. I've done an insanity run for the trophy and I never intend to do that again. We're here for the important part, the story.
ME doesn't have an approval/disapproval system like DA so you don't have to worry about your squadmates leaving and can be a raging asshole as much as you want - even to someone you want to romance as long as you pick the right options at the right time. Instead it has the "Paragon/Renegade" system where you get points for taking certain actions. The scores run in parallel so if you choose a Paragon option and then a Renegade option they don't cancel each other out; instead you get + however many points for that tree. It's not possible to max out both in a normal playthrough, however there is a way to cheat this, even on console. I'll be doing that ASAP in order to allow us maximum dialogue options for the rest of the game. You have to pass a "check" to get some options and if your score isn't high enough that particular dialogue is greyed out and can't be chosen.
I have to go.
Since we can't lose squadmates and I'm going to cheat us maximum personality, I'll be all over the place with my dialogue. I do tend to play my Shepards on the good side because some of the renegade options are just assholish and stupid and don't do anything for us. Also this Butts will not remain lonely and we will do some romancing. I will punch as many people as I can without permanently fucking something up. Also this game has a crapload of empty side content and I'm not going to even bother going there or trying to collect stupid shit. I will be doing Bring Down the Sky. This game isn't going to take us anywhere near as long as DAI (thank god).
Spoilers
This game is 8 years old. If you have somehow managed to avoid hearing or knowing anything about it then be forewarned, shit will get ruined for you. Talk about whatever in any of the three games (though please try to avoid too much shit about the ending to 3, if we get there we'll cry about it in real time). If you're just not really familiar with things feel free to ask for clarification.
Right Hook Count
1
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